DUDLEY   CASTLE    (Page  6) 


THE  LIFE  AND  WORK  OF 

'THOMAS  DUDLEY 

THE  SECOND  GOVERNOR  OF 
MASSACHUSETTS 


BY 


AUGUSTINE  JONES,  A.M.,  LL.B. 

MEMBER  OF  THE   RHODE   ISLAND   HISTORICAL   SOCIETY   AND  OF   THE  NEW  ENGLAND 
HISTORIC  GENEALOGICAL  SOCIETY 


BOSTON  AND  NEW  YORK 
HOUGHTON,  MIFFLIN  AND   COMPANY 
fltfe  ftrtiersi&e  #retf 
1900 


COPYRIGHT,   1899,   BY  AUGUSTINE  JONES 
ALL  RIGHTS  RESERVED 


To 

THE  HONORABLE  THOMAS  B.  REED,  LL.  D. 

Whose  illustrious  career,  in  a  more  conspicuous  public  service, 
distinguished  for  patriotism,  foresight,  and  wisdom,  is  in  striking 
accord  with  that  of  him  whose  personal  history  at  the  beginning 
of  the  Republic  is  here  delineated,  this  work  is  inscribed  by 
his  sincere  friend  and  classmate, 

AUGUSTINE  JONES. 


PREFACE 

THIS  Life  of  Governor  Thomas  Dudley  has  been  written, 
especially  so  far  as  it  pertains  to  Massachusetts,  upon  the 
authority  of  the  public  records,  while  the  earlier  portion, 
describing  his  career  in  England,  has  been  produced  chiefly 
from  the  literature  which  appeared  immediately  after  his 
time. 

We  have  not  overlooked  those  writers  who,  during  more 
than  two  centuries,  have  recorded  with  great  unanimity  their 
opinions  respecting  the  bigotry  of  Dudley. 

We  indulge  the  hope  that  the  thoughtful  reader  will  con 
clude  with  us  that  an  injustice  has  been  done  to  the  memory 
of  an  excellent  man,  who  cordially  welcomed  truth  from 
every  source. 

Dean  Stanley  has  truly  said,  "  Every  one  is  familiar  with 
the  reversal  of  popular  judgments  respecting  individuals  or 
events  of  our  own  time.  It  would  be  an  easy,  though  per 
haps  an  invidious  task,  to  point  out  the  changes  from  oblo 
quy  to  applause."  : 

Our  explanation  of  the  adverse  opinions  and  offensive 
epithets  applied  to  Dudley  is  well  expressed  by  the  poet 
Prior.2 

Dudley  was  as  liberal  in  religion  and  politics  as  the  public 

1  Hist.  Mem.  Canterbury,  by  A.  P.  Stanley,  59. 

2  "  Till  their  own  dreams  at  length  deceive  'em, 

And  oft  repeating  they  believe  'em." 

(Alma,  iii.  Canto  30.) 


vi  PREFACE 

sentiment  of  his  age  allowed,  and  nothing  beyond  this  can 
be  required.  He  was  not  then  regarded  as  intolerant,  and 
the  judgment  of  his  neighbors  and  peers  is  the  only  reason 
able  one. 

The  difficulties  of  our  undertaking  are  set  forth  so  fully 
in  the  first  chapter  that  it  is  not  essential  to  enlarge  upon 
them  here.  The  Puritanic  quality  of  our  theme  has  led  us 
into  some  digression,  in  search  for  the  social  life  in  the  midst 
of  which  Puritanism  flourished. 

It  is  said  that  Cromwell  possessed  a  "  massive  stature ; 
big,  massive  head,  of  somewhat  leonine  aspect ;  wart  above 
the  right  eyebrow ;  nose  of  considerable  blunt-aquiline  pro 
portions,"  *  and  that  when  a  limner  attempted  to  improve  on 
nature  in  painting  his  portrait,  he  impatiently  exclaimed, 
"  Paint  me  as  I  am." 

Thomas  Dudley  had  the  same  unaffected,  rugged  char 
acter.  He  would  say  to  us  if  he  could,  "  I  lived  and  acted 
regardless  of  praise  or  blame.  I  appeal  from  the  unfair  and 
incomplete  judgments  of  biased  men,  to  that  unerring  judge 
who  knew  my  motives,  inspired  and  led  me  in  life.  I  ask 
neither  apologies  nor  explanations  respecting  my  life  work. 
But  if  I  am  to  be  painted,  '  paint  me  as  I  am/  for  I  say  with 
Othello,  '  Speak  of  me  as  I  am  ;  nothing  extenuate,  nor  set 
down  aught  in  malice.'  ' 

The  aim  of  the  author  has  not  been  chiefly  vindication, 
but  to  present  the  notable  career  of  an  eminent  founder  of 
New  England,  a  public  servant  whose  honest,  healthful 
methods  in  public  life  are  at  present  worthy  of  imitation. 
We  must  return  with  all  possible  speed  to  the  same  faithful, 
intelligent  administration  of  the  affairs  of  state  which  dis 
tinguished  Dudley,  to  protect  ourselves  from  great  evils  and 

1  Carlyle's  Speeches  and  Letters  of  Cromwell,  ii.  287. 


PREFACE  vii 

political  corruptions,  which  at  present  menace  our  institu 
tions. 

Mr.  Moses  Coit  Tyler  says  :  "  Doubtless  we  shall  be 
ready  to  say  with  Nathaniel  Hawthorne  :  '  Let  us  thank  God 
for  having  given  us  such  ancestors ;  and  let  each  successive 
generation  thank  him  .not  less  fervently  for  being  one  step 
removed  further  from  them  in  the  march  of  ages.' " 

Human  progress  in  recent  centuries  has  been  sufficient  to 
awaken  the  gratitude  of  thoughtful  men  for  having  been 
born  into  modern  society  with  its  light  and  culture. 

A  few  hundred  years  later  our  descendants  will  be  com 
miserating  us  on  the  intolerable  evils  of  society  in  our  day. 
They  will  also  bring  us  into  comparison  with  themselves, 
pluming  themselves  over  our  records,  deriding  our  inhuman 
ity  to  man,  our  cruelty  to  animals,  and  entertaining  them 
selves  with  our  antique  foolishness.  We  shall  be  fortunate 
if  our  service  to  the  world,  with  a  perspective  of  as  many 
years,  is  as  creditable  under  examination  as  that  of  the  Puri 
tan  founders  of  New  England. 

We  heartily  approve  of  the  first  clause  of  the  quotation, 
"  Let  us  thank  God  for  such  ancestors."  We  neither  adopt 
all  of  their  theology  nor  all  of  their  practices.  We  have  a 
similar  hesitancy  respecting  some  of  the  teachings  of  Moses, 
the  great  lawgiver  of  antiquity.  Both  the  Puritans  and  that 
eminent  Hebrew  were  lights  in  the  world  in  the  greatest  of 
all  concernments,  and  are  to  be  judged  in  the  wisdom  and 
intelligence  of  their  respective  periods  and  environments. 
The  fundamental  truth  of  all  pure  religions,  indeed  of  the 
universal  religion  itself,  which  was  proclaimed  to  the  Samari 
tan  woman  at  Jacob's  well,  was  the  groundwork,  enduring 
and  life-giving,  of  both  manifestations  of  truth.1 

1  The  family  of  Thomas  Dudley  was  undoubtedly  more  important  in 


viii  PREFACE 

We  tender  our  grateful  acknowledgments  to  the  Governor 
Thomas  Dudley  Association  of  Boston,  Mass.,  for  their  im 
portant  assistance  in  this  undertaking. 

We  are  greatly  indebted  to  the  valuable  "  History  of  the 
Dudley  Family,"  by  Dean  Dudley,  Esq.,  and  also  to  the 
invaluable  services  of  Caroline  Rathbone  Jones,  whose  ear 
nest  labors  have  entered  into  this  work  with  unfaltering 
energy. 

the  affairs  of  Massachusetts  during  her  first  hundred  years,  or  until  a 
quarter  of  a  century  previous  to  the  Declaration  of  Independence,  than 
any  other  family  of  the  original  undertakers,  assistants,  or  governors. 
A  democratic  revolution  at  the  close  of  that  period  was  under  perpetual 
agitation  advancing  towards  a  crisis  of  separation  from  the  mother 
country.  The  Dudleys,  who  had  been  so  long  and  powerfully  under 
royal  prerogative,  were  then  sent  into  retirement.  (Appendix  B,  C,  D, 
E,  F,  J,  K.) 


CONTENTS 


CHAPTER  PAGE 

I.     The  childhood  and  family  of  Thomas  Dudley,  1576- 

1590 1 

II.     His  youth  and  pagehood  at  the  home  of  Lord  Comp- 

ton,  including  war  in  France,  1590-1598      .        .        .12 
III.     His   marriage;   clerkship   with  Judge   Nicolls,    1598- 

1616 24 

IV.     Steward  of  Theophilus  Clinton,  fourth  Earl  of  Lin 
coln,  1616-1628 31 

V.     His   residence   at   Sempringham,    Boston,  and    Clips- 
ham,  England,  1616-1630 43 

VI.     Emigration  to  America,  1630  ......     54 

VII.     The  transfer  of  the   First   Charter  of  Massachusetts 

to  America,  1630 66 

VIII.     The  experiences  of  the  emigrants  in  America,  1630       .     76 
IX.     Construction   of    government   and   personal   disagree 
ment  between  Winthrop  and  Dudley,  1631-1632         .     90 
X.     Differences    further    considered,    also    strictures    on 

Dudley,  1632 106 

XI.     Church  and  state,   union   of ;  need  of  religion  in  the 

state,  1632 116 

XII.     Settlement  and  fortification  of  Cambridge,  Mass.,  by 

Dudley,  1631 123 

XIII.     Roger  Williams,  Gardiner,  and   others   in   Massachu 
setts,  1631-1632 134 

XIV.     Answer  to    Gardiner  not  subscribed  by  Dudley;  the 
setting   up   of  the  king's   colors  on  the  fort,  1631- 

1636 144 

XV.     Fortifications    in    Boston    and    Cambridge;     Dudley 

governor,  1634     .         .        .        .         •        .        .        .153 

XVI.     First  use  of  the   ballot ;    government  by  the  people 

secured,  1634        ........  164 

XVII.    The  Hocking  case  ;  Dudley  on  the  side  of  Plymouth, 

1634 173 


x  CONTENTS 

XVIII.  Preparation  for  war  with  England;  influence  of 
learned  men ;  sumptuary  laws ;  Hooker  and  his 
congregation  desire  to  emigrate  to  Connecticut, 

1634 183 

XIX.     Roger  Williams,  departure  of  ;  Winthrop  and  Dudley, 

1634 192 

XX.  Code  of  laws  considered ;  the  fisheries  ;  Dudley  fac 
tion  in  politics ;  Winthrop  in  trouble ;  vindication 
of  Dudley ;  discreditable  false  story  in  the  matter 
of  Marmaduke  Matthews ;  Hooker  emigrates  to 
Connecticut;  Standing  Council  formed;  Dudley  a 
member  of  it,  1636  .  ;  >  .  .  .  .  202 
XXI.  Ann  Hutchinson ;  Harry  Vane  governor;  the  Synod 
and  Antinomians ;  Dudley  and  Antinomians,  also 
his  poetry  ;  his  residence  in  Ipswich,  Mass.,  1634- 

1636      .        ...  - 216 

XXII.     Lechford's   book;   the   founding  of   Harvard   College 

and  Dudley's  connection  with  it,  1636-1637        .        .  233 

XXIII.  Winthrop    and    Dudley    at    Concord ;     the    printing 

press ;    home   of   Dudley  in   Roxbury,   Mass. ;    im 
proved  roads,  1638-1639 248 

XXIV.  Dudley  governor  ;   law-making ;    refusal  to  deal  with 

Rhode  Island,  1640-1641 263 

XXV.  Dudley  declines  to  be  assistant,  but  suffers  himself 
to  be  persuaded ;  name  of  king  left  out  of  oath, 
1642 279 

XXVI.  The  Standing  Council;  Dudley  commissioner  to  the 
Confederacy ;  helped  form  its  articles ;  civil  war 
in  England ;  matter  of  Samuel  Gorton  in  Rhode 

Island,  1642-1643 293 

XXVII.     Miantonomoh  ;  the   negative   voice  ;   D'Aulnay   Com 
mission;     Rogers    and    Dudley;    decease  of    Mrs. 

Thomas  Dudley,  1643 310 

XXVIII.  Dudley  Sergeant  Major  General;  Rev.  John  Eliot 
and  Dudley;  free  school  of  Roxbury;  slavery  in 
Massachusetts ;  Hingham  trouble ;  Uncas  ;  Win- 
throp's  "  Little  Speech,"  1644-1645  ....  323 

XXIX.  Dudley  governor;  assembly  of  divines  at  Westmin 
ster  and  Cambridge  Synod,  and  the  Independents; 
Winslow's  instructions  ;  D'Aulnay  and  La  Tour,  1643- 

1645 340 

XXX.  Declarations  of  the  Confederacy  respecting  heresy, 
religion,  and  the  state ;  harsh  laws ;  Rev.  John 
Eliot;  death  of  Hooker,  1646-1647  .  .  .  .353 


CONTENTS  xi 

XXXI.     Common  schools  ;  New  Netherland ;  Governor  Peter 
Stuyvesant  ;    Connecticut     River     and    Springfield, 

1647-1648 366 

XXXI J.  Witchcraft;  long  hair;  death  of  Winthrop ;  execu 
tion  of  Charles  I.;  Indians;  Hon.  Robert  Boyle; 
Book  of  Discipline,  1648-1649 382 

XXXIII.  Dudley   governor;    charter   granted   to    Harvard  Col 

lege;  Lex   Mercatoria;    Bozoun  Allen  and  Dudley; 
Lord  Cromwell  and  Ireland,  1650        ....  393 

XXXIV.  The   Baptists;  John    Clarke;    aristocracy    and   demo 

cracy  ;  the  Bible  in  the  Commonwealth  ;  theocracy ; 
coinage  of  shillings  ;  education ;  decease  of  Dudley, 

1650-1653 406 

Conclusion 425 


APPENDIX 

A.  Thomas  Dudley's  Letter  to  the  Countess  of  Lincoln 

B.  Governor  Joseph  Dudley    ...... 

C.  Governor  Simon  Bradstreet  and  his  wife,  Anne 

D.  Major-General  Dennison  and  his  wife,  Patience 

E.  Rev.  Samuel  Dudley 

F.  Rev.  John  Woodbridge  and  his  wife,  Mercy 

G.  Captain  Jonathan  Wade  and  his  wife,  Deborah 

H.   Sarah  Pacey 

I.    Paul  Dudley 

J.     Chief  Justice  Paul  Dudley,  grandson  of  Thomas  Dudley 
K.  Colonel  William  Dudley,  grandson  of  Thomas  Dudley 


437 
453 
464 
465 
467 
468 
469 
469 
472 
472 

475 


ILLUSTRATIONS 


Facing 
Page 

Dudley  Castle  in  the  County  of  Worcester,  England.  Frontispiece 

Compton-Winyates,  Warwickshire 12 

Castle  Ashby,  Northamptonshire 16 

Westminster  Hall,  London 24 

Court  of  Common  Pleas,  Westminster  Hall,  London     ...  28 

Doorway  to  St.  Andrew's  Church,  on  the  south  side     ...  36 

St.  Andrew's  Church,  at  Sempringham,  Lincolnshire     ...  40 

Interior  of  St.  Andrew's  Church 46 

Church  of  St.  Botolph,  Boston,  England 50 

Interior  of  Church  of  St.  Botolph 52 

Willows  on  the  line  of  Dudley's  Palisade  in  Cambridge,  Mass.     .  126 

First  Charter  of  Massachusetts 184 

"  Two  Brothers,"  on  the  Bank  of  the  Concord  River,  Bedford, 

Mass 252 

Charter  of  Harvard  College  of  1650,  bearing  the  Sign  Manual 

of  Governor  Dudley 394 


THE   LIFE   AND   WORK   OF  THOMAS 
DUDLEY 


CHAPTER   I 

IT  may  be  reasonably  questioned  whether  any  single  char 
acter  in  American  history  was  more  devoted  to  right  doing, 
or  has  been  more  thoroughly  made  to  appear  to  be  what  he 
was  not,  or  more  completely  undervalued  and  neglected  by 
his  friends  and  traduced  by  the  indifferent,  since  his  own 
generation,  which  highly  appreciated  and  honored  him,  than 
the  second  governor  of  Massachusetts,  whose  life  work  we 
propose  to  sketch. 

Thomas  Dudley,  a  Puritan  second  only  to  Governor  John 
Winthrop  in  founding  the  Colony  of  Massachusetts,  and  in 
its  history  from  1630  until  1653,  was  born  at  Northampton, 
England,  in  the  year  1576,  it  is  said  near  the  residence  of 
the  Earl  of  Northampton.1  But  since  there  was  no  Earl  of 
Northampton  until  August  2,  i6i8,2  it  must  be  intended  that 
he  was  born  near  Castle  Ashby,3  the  home  of  Henry  Comp- 
ton,  or  Baron  Compton,  whose  son  William  became  the  first 
Earl  of  Northampton  in  1618,  as  above  mentioned.  We 
shall  have  a  special  interest  in  this  first  Earl,  because  Gov 
ernor  Dudley  was  for  many  years  in  the  highly  honorable 
position  of  page  to  him. 

It  is  the  duty  of  every  public  man  to  write  his  autobio 
graphy,  and  give  to  mankind  his  own  interpretation  of  events. 
Without  this,  the  only  person  who  knew  the  reasons  for  his 

1  J.  B.  Moore's  Memoirs  of  Am.  Governors,  273. 

2  Burke's  Peerage,  1036. 

8  S.  C.  Hall's  Baronial  Halls  of  England,  i. 


THOMAS   DUDLEY  [CH.  i 


action  in  a  given  case  cannot  be  heard,  while  enemies  and 
rivals  are  left  unanswered  to  color  the  story  of  his  life  work, 
as  their  memory,  tinged  possibly  with  personal  prejudice, 
may  dictate.  Without  such  autobiography,  persons  seeking 
in  the  most  impartial  and  judicial  spirit  to  do  justice  to  him 
are  forced  to  conjecture  and  theorize  as  to  his  motives,  and, 
with  otherwise  needless  labor,  to  reproduce  the  different 
parts  of  his  story,  to  render  the  whole  as  consistent  as  possi 
ble  without  the  connecting  links,  which  he  held  as  a  secret 
never  imparted  to  the  world.1 

Governor  John  Winthrop  did  not  make  this  mistake,  but, 
with  that  prudent  regard  for  the  good  opinion  of  posterity 
which  signalized  his  thoughtfulness  in  securing  the  esteem 
of  his  contemporaries,  he  left  an  elaborate  journal,  so  just  in 
its  delineations,  even  of  his  own  faults  and  mistakes,  that 
general  credence  has  been  given  to  it,  in  his  account  of  the 
conduct  of  his  political  rivals  in  the  heat  of  action.  If  we 
were  sure  that  this  truly  noble  man  was  without  mortal 
frailty,  and  that  his  fairness  of  statement  was  nowhere  in 
tended  to  win  our  confidence,  but  merely  designed  to  do 
ample  justice  to  his  own  side  of  controverted  subjects,  we 
might  never  seek  the  side-lights  of  history,  or  search  to  find 
the  missing  links  between  the  differing  historic  accounts.2 

Governor  Thomas  Dudley  was  the  only  son  of  Captain 

1  "  And  on  me 

Frown  not,  old  ghosts,  if  I  be  one  of  those 
Who  make  you  utter  things  you  did  not  say, 
And  mould  you  all  awry  and  mar  your  worth ; 
For  whatsoever  knows  us  truly,  knows 
That  none  can  truly  write  his  single  day, 
And  none  can  write  it  for  him  upon  earth." 

(Tennyson's  Memoirs,  vol.  i.  xi.) 

2  Mr.  J.  A.  Doyle  testifies  that  Winthrop  is  "  not  always  a  trust 
worthy  authority."  (J.  A.  Doyle's  English  in  America,  i.  239  note.)  If 
self-interest  made  him  untrustworthy  on  the  heretics  of  Rhode  Island, 
would  not  the  same  thing  influence  him  in  portraying  the  passions  or 
avarice  of  his  political  rival?  There  is  no  other  contemporaneous 
account  of  the  passions  or  of  the  avarice  of  Thomas  Dudley.  The 
exact  extent  of  them  may  therefore  be  a  matter  of  doubt. 


1576-1590]  ANCESTRY  3 

Roger  Dudley,  who  was  killed,  it  is  said,  in  the  battle  of 
Ivry,  in  which,  in  1 590,  Henry  IV.  of  France  gained  a  deci 
sive  victory  over  Mayenne.1 

Captain  Dudley  fought  that  day  doubtless  under  Lord 
Willoughby,  who  is  said  to  have  commanded  the  English 
Protestants  in  that  battle,  and  whose  life  five  years  before, 
on  the  field  of  Zutphen,  Sir  Philip  Sidney  saved  but  sacri 
ficed  his  own,  Sidney's  death  being  one  of  the  most  memo 
rable  in  the  annals  of  the  world.2  There  is  a  well-supported 
tradition  in  the  Dudley  family  that  Captain  Roger  Dudley 
was  connected  by  birth  with  Sir  Philip  Sidney. 

It  was  singular  that  Captain  Roger,  and  later  his  son 
Thomas  Dudley,  who  was  still  later  the  stanch  Massachu 
setts  Puritan,  were  both  fighting  at  different  periods,  with 
commissions  as  captains  in  the  British  army  granted  to 
them  by  Queen  Elizabeth,  to  place  Henry  of  Navarre,  the 
first  Bourbon,  upon  the  throne  of  France,  who,  regardless 
of  the  Protestants  in  the  ranks  of  his  army,  exchanged  his 
religion  for  a  royal  crown. 

We  have  not  at  present  satisfactory  knowledge  of  the 
ancestry  of  Governor  Dudley  beyond  his  father,  Roger  Dud 
ley  ;  but  George  Adlard  says,  in  "  The  Sutton-Dudleys  of 
England  and  the  Dudleys  of  Massachusetts,"  47,  that  afrom 
the  investigation  I  have  made  in  relation  to  this  family,  I 
arrive  at  the  conclusion  that,  though  Governor  Dudley  was 
not  descended  in  the  direct  line  from  John  Dudley,  Duke  of 
Northumberland,  yet  that  both  were  descended  from  the 
same  ancestry.  Both  use  the  same  coat  of  arms."  This 
seems  to  be  the  most  reasonable  result  yet  attained. 

Dean  Dudley  says  :  "  Captain  Roger  Dudley  flourished  in 
the  time  of  Robert  Dudley,  Queen  Elizabeth's  famous  Earl 
of  Leicester,  and  appears  to  have  been  one  of  the  soldiers 
sent  over  by  the  queen  to  aid  Henry  of  Navarre  to  establish 
his  throne.  .  .  .  The  Dudleys  of  the  Dudley  Castle  race 
were  ever  inclined  to  a  military  life.  Captain  Roger  doubt- 

1  Dean  Dudley's  History  of  Dudley  Family,  i.  24. 

2  H.  R.  Fox  Bourne's  Sir  Philip  Sidney,  342. 


4  THOMAS    DUDLEY  [CH.  I 

less  belonged  to  this  branch  of  his  family."  Mr.  Dean 
Dudley  says  also  that  the  wife  of  Roger  Dudley  "was  a 
kinswoman  of  Augustine  Nicolls  of  Faxton  in  Northampton 
shire,"  and  he  thinks  that  Governor  Thomas  Dudley  was 
drawn  towards  Puritanism  by  his  mother's  family."  1  Mr. 
Jacob  Bailey  Moore  informs  us  that  "  there  is  a  tradition 
among  the  descendants  of  Governor  Thomas  Dudley,  in  the 
eldest  branch  of  the  family,  that  he  was  descended  from 
John  Dudley,  Duke  of  Northumberland,  who  was  beheaded 
22  February,  I553/'2  Dudley  "was  a  man  of  a  great 
spirit,  as  well  as  of  great  understanding,  suitable  to  the 
family  he  was,  by  his  father,  descended  from."3  We  do 
not  think  that  he  was  descended  from  the  Duke  of  North 
umberland,  but  that  they  had  a  common  ancestry  as  stated 
by  Adlard. 

Anne  Bradstreet,  the  daughter  of  Governor  Thomas  Dud 
ley,  "  who  wrote  the  first  volume  of  poems  published  in  New 
England,"4  declared  in  1641,  when  the  means  of  complete 
information  were  within  her  reach  (for  it  was  during  her 
father's  lifetime,  who  doubtless  knew  his  ancestry),  that  she 
had  the  selfsame  blood  in  her  veins  as  Sir  Philip  Sidney. 
And  with  this  abundant  light  on  the  subject  she  wrote,  in 
her  elegy  upon  Sir  Philip  Sidney  (whose  mother  was  the 
Lady  Mary,  eldest  daughter  of  the  above-named  Duke  of 
Northumberland,  of  the  house  of  Dudley),  as  follows  :  — 

"  Let,  then,  none  disallow  of  these  my  strains, 
Which  have  the  selfsame  blood  yet  in  my  veins." 

She  subsequently  changed  these  lines,  it  is  said,  so  that  they 
now  are :  — 

"  Then  let  none  disallow  of  these  my  strains 
Whilst  English  blood  yet  runs  within  my  veins." 

This  change  has  been  considered  by  some  persons  a  revoca 
tion  of  her  claim  to  relationship.5  The  modification  does 

1  Dean  Dudley's  History  of  Dudley  Family,  i.  17. 

2  Memoirs  of  Am.  Governors,  273. 

8  Cotton  Mather,  Proc.  Mass.  Hist.  Soc.  220. 

4  See  Duyckinck's  Cyclopaedia  of  Amer.  Lit.,  i.  52. 

5  J.  H.  Ellis's  Works  of  Anne  Bradstreet,  Int.  xii. 


1576-1590]  ANCESTRY  5 

not,  however,  seem  to  be  a  retraction  of  the  claim.  She  may 
not  have  liked  the  personal,  possibly  boastful,  allusion ;  it 
was  certain  to  be  distasteful  to  her  father.  He  did  not  in 
dulge  in  that  sort  of  thing ;  he  particularly  concealed  those 
matters  which  were  of  private  concernment,  and  among  them 
his  ancestry.  The  change  is  in  the  direction  of  true  art,  of 
strict  adherence  to  her  theme. 

She  had,  in  the  lines  before  these,  enumerated  the  great 
merits  of  Sidney's  work,  mentioned  the  large  esteem  in  which 
he  was  held,  and  lastly  called  attention  to  the  love  that  Eng 
land  owed  to  him.  It  was  not  in  good  taste  to  exalt  her  own 
strains,  for  the  reason  that  she  was  related  to  Sidney ;  or  to 
draw  attention  to  herself,  or  to  withdraw  public  thought  from 
the  far  greater  achievements  of  her  hero.  She  had  failed  in 
these  lines  of  her  first  edition  to  carry  out  her  poetic  con 
ception  to  completion,  and,  like  a  sensible  woman,  when  her 
next  edition  appeared  she  had  corrected  them.  I  am  unable 
to  find  a  word  written  by  Anne  Bradstreet  disclaiming  her 
relationship  to  Sidney.  She  knew  from  her  father,  her 
^husband,  and  her  family  the  fact  which  she  had  so  simply 
related.  We  must  cherish  her  significant  testimony,  for 
she  was  an  actor  in  those  busy  scenes,  and  speaks  as  one 
having  authority.  The  light  of  truth  streams  through  her 
first  verses. 

Anne  Bradstreet' s  claim  to  relationship  is  confirmed  by 
the  coats  of  arms  both  of  Governor  Thomas  Dudley,  placed 
on  his  last  will  by  himself,  and  of  Governor  Joseph  Dudley. 
They  were  a  lion  rampant,  with  a  crescent  for  difference. 
These,  it  is  asserted,  belonged  to  only  two  branches  of  the 
Dudley  family,  both  descended  from  the  first  Baron  Dudley, 
who  died  in  1488. 

Massachusetts  was  then  English  territory,  and  the  laws 
of  that  country  regulated  and  restricted  the  use  of  heraldic 
arms.  They  were  then  a  distinguishing  mark  between  noble 
families,  and  no  high-minded  person  like  Governor  Dudley 
would  assume  the  arms  of  another  family,  and  no  dishonest 
man  would  dare  to  do  it. 


6  THOMAS   DUDLEY  [CH.  i 

Titles  to  estates  in  England  were  held  by  virtue  of  the 
arms  and  escutcheons  of  ancestors ;  they  proved  marriages 
and  descent  by  them  sometimes.1 

How  well  informed  Governor  Dudley  was  respecting  his 
descent  will  be  evident  upon  a  moment's  reflection.  John 
Sutton,  the  first  Baron  Dudley  of  Dudley  Castle,  died  only 
eighty-eight  years  before  the  birth  of  Thomas  Dudley.  Two 
successive  barons,  Edward  the  second  and  John  the  third 
Baron  Dudley,  had  during  that  brief  period  lived  and  died ; 
while,  within  the  same  exact  duration  of  time,  Edmund  Dud 
ley,  the  merciless  extortioner  of  Henry  VII.,  who  furnished 
a  theme  for  Sir  Thomas  More  in  the  "  Utopia,"  2  John  Dud 
ley,  Duke  of  Northumberland,  and  Lord  Guilford  Dudley, 
his  son,  descending  by  another  line  from  the  same  first  Baron 
Dudley,  flourished  and  disappeared. 

Sir  Philip  Sidney,  the  son  of  Mary  Dudley,  died  at  Zut- 
phen  when  Thomas  Dudley  was  ten  years  of  age ;  and 
Robert,  Earl  of  Leicester,  the  favorite  of  Queen  Elizabeth, 
died  when  he  was  twelve  years  old. 

We  can  easily  conceive  Governor  Dudley  to  have  known, 
individuals  who  had  met  every  one  of  the  above-named  per 
sons,  from  the  first  Baron  Dudley  down  to  his  own  times. 
If  we  recall  his  social  relation  in  England,  his  thoughtful, 
scholarly  habits,  and,  in  advanced  life,  his  extended  public 
career,  we  may  be  morally  certain  that  the  history  of  every 
one  of  these  personages  was  familiarly  considered  by  him, 
and  his  personal  relation  to  them  thoroughly  understood. 

When,  therefore,  in  1653,  he  used  the  Sutton-Dudley  seal 
on  his  will,  he  was  not  ignorant  of  his  rights.  He  was 
trained  to  the  law,  and  had  long  been  a  judge  of  it,  and  was 
always  obedient  to  it  in  an  exemplary  manner.  When  he 
applied  that  coat  of  arms  to  his  last  will  and  testament,  now 
preserved  with  probate  records  of  Suffolk  County,  Mass., 
—  one  of  the  most  solemn  acts  of  his  life,  and  nearly  the 
final  one,  —  he  in  effect  affirmed  that  he  was  descended  in 

1  Sutton-Dudleys  of  England,  51 ;  N.  Am.  Rev.,  c.  191. 

2  Hume's  Hist.  Eng.,  iii.  387,  411,  412. 


1576-1590]  ANCESTRY  7 

direct  lineage  from  the  barons  of  Dudley  Castle.1  If,  with 
his  experience  and  knowledge,  he  did  it  wilfully  with  a  pur 
pose  to  cheat  and  to  deceive  as  to  his  family,  to  claim  what 
did  not  belong  to  him,  to  represent  himself  to  be  what  he 
was  not,  or  even  to  give  to  himself  the  benefit  of  a  doubt, 
then  that  single  last  act  of  his  life  is  in  conflict  with  all  the 
rest  of  his  honest  record. 

His  use  of  this  seal  under  the  circumstances  tends,  so 
far  as  the  testimony  of  one  honest  man  can  go,  to  sustain 
the  claim  that  he  rightly  appropriated  it.  The  importance 
of  this  act  on  his  part  is  greatly  increased  by  the  fact  that 
it  is  the  only  known  instance  in  which,  after  years  of  con 
cealment  and  reserve,  he  suffered  his  ancestry  to  be  revealed 
by  himself  in  America.  It  seems  to  have  been  the  solitary 
departure  from  a  fixed  purpose.  His  right  is  corroborated 
by  his  children,  and  by  other  evidence  above  mentioned. 

The  heralds  may  not  recognize  the  claim,  but  the  know 
ledge  of  Thomas  Dudley  himself  is  of  far  greater  weight 
than  their  theories  about  the  title.  They  may  indeed  refuse 
it,  but  it  will  not  be  the  first  time  that  legal  titles  have  been 
lost  by  neglect,  while  the  claim  survives  with  every  attribute 
except  technicality  and  the  letter  of  law. 

Mr.  John  Fiske  says  :  "Thomas  Dudley  came  of  an  ancient 
family,  the  history  of  which,  alike  in  the  Old  and  in  the  New 
England,  has  not  been  altogether  creditable."  This  is  strictly 
true  of  every  other  family.  It  is  harmless  enough  at  first 
thought,  but  as  you  read  and  consider  you  feel  that  injustice 
is  in  it.  It  leaves  a  strong  inference  that  the  record  of  the 
family  is  dishonored  below  the  average  of  ancient  families, 
which  we  do  not  believe  to  be  the  fact. 

There  is  much  certainly  to  be  satisfied  with  in  the  family 
history.  Sir  Philip  Sidney  said  :  "  Though  in  all  truth  I 
may  justly  affirm  that  I  am  by  my  father's  side  of  ancient 
and  always  well-esteemed  and  well-matched  gentry,  yet  I  do 
acknowledge  I  say  that  my  chiefest  honour  is  to  be  a  Dud- 

1  J.  Timbs's  Abbeys,  Castles,  etc.,  of  England,  502;  Penny  Mag.,  xii. 
83- 


8  THOMAS   DUDLEY  [CH.  i 

ley."  1  And  his  father,  Sir  Henry  Sidney,  wrote  to  the  same 
purport  in  his  famous  letter  of  advice  to  Philip  at  school : 
"  Remember,  my  son,  the  noble  blood  you  are  descended  of 
by  your  mother's  side ;  and  think  that  only  by  virtuous  life 
and  good  action  you  may  be  an  ornament  to  that  illustrious 
family."2 

Governor  Joseph  Dudley  has  been  both  greatly  praised 
and  greatly  blamed,  chiefly  because  he  was  an  Episcopalian 
and  a  royalist  with  Andros,  although  he  was  in  fair  repute 
later  during  thirteen  years.  We  shall  observe  afterwards 
that  some  of  his  public  services  have  added  to  the  renown  of 
himself  and  family. 

His  son,  Chief  Justice  Paul  Dudley,  was  very  distinguished 
and  beyond  reproach,3  and  recognized  as  an  eminent  scholar 
on  both  sides  of  the  ocean.  Among  the  noted  descendants 
of  Governor  Thomas  Dudley,  though  not  bearing  his  name, 
are  to  be  mentioned  Dr.  William  Ellery  Channing,  Joseph 
Stevens  Buckminster,  Richard  H.  Dana  (father  and  son), 
Dr.  Oliver  Wendell  Holmes,  Wendell  Phillips,  and  Charles 
Eliot  Norton.  The  fame  of  the  family  is  safe  with  these 
names.4 

We  are  not,  however,  unmindful  that  the  greatness  of 
Governor  Dudley  arose  not  so  much  from  his  distinguished 
ancestry  as  from  his  own  eminent  life  work. 

Far  above  "the  boast  of  heraldry,  the  pomp  of  power," 
is  the  imperishable  renown  of  being  one  of  the  foremost 
among  the  founders  of  this  great  nation,  dedicated  to  liberty, 
to  the  freedom  of  human  thought,  to  the  worth  and  excel 
lence  of  individual  character.  It  was,  indeed,  a  memorable 
achievement  to  bring  into  this  wilderness  in  the  seventeenth 
century  a  civilization,  laws,  customs,  and  social  life  the  most 
advanced  in  the  world,  and  to  plant  them  with  such  vigor 
and  stability  that  they  continue  to  flourish  through  all  con- 

1  Julia  Cartwright's  Dorothy  Sidney,  4. 

2  Ib.,  4- 

8  Excepting  the  association  of  himself  with  his  father  by  the  enemies 
of  both. 


4  Dean  Dudley's  History  of  Dudley  Family. 


1576-1590]  ANCESTRY  9 

flicts,  with  constantly  extending  potency  over  the  continent, 
and  in  turn  to  react  in  unmeasured  energy  upon  the  pro 
gress  and  destiny  of  the  Old  World.  "  Let  us  praise  famous 
men,"  saith  the  wise  son  of  Sirach  ;  "the  Lord  hath  wrought 
great  glory  by  them  through  his  great  power  from  the  begin 
ning."  1 

If  Governor  Dudley  and  his  descendants  may  not  claim 
kindred  to  the  Sidneys,  and  have  that  claim  allowed  (which 
we  do  not  admit),  it  is  enough  that  he  was  an  eminent  foun 
der  of  New  England.  There  is  no  other  epoch  in  human 
history  from  which  so  many  great  events  have  taken  a  turn. 

It  seems  almost  incredible  to  us  that  Governor  Dudley 
should  wish  so  utterly  to  burn  all  the  bridges  behind  him 
self,  sever  all  connection  with  his  kindred  and  the  land  of 
his  nativity,  when  he  came  to  America  to  stay.  He  was, 
however,  a  Puritan,  and  regarded  all  human  distinctions 
founded  on  family  and  blood  as  worthless.  They  had  left 
the  Old  World  to  establish  a  new  government  in  which  only 
church  members  were  to  rule.  Utopia  was  to  be  created, 
society  was  to  appear  in  perfection.  In  this  new,  strange 
life  the  church,  government,  and  social  orders  all  underwent 
a  rigid  inspection  to  discern  if  there  were  any  evil  ways 
in  them.  In  each  institution  they  saw  how  vast  the  possi 
bilities,  and  that,  while  tender  memories  and  sacred  asso 
ciations  attracted  them  to  fatherland,  with  its  endearing 
homes,  matchless  landscapes,  and  cultured  life,  yet  they 
must  forsake  all  these,  restricted  henceforth  to  the  rugged 
but  constantly  broadening  path  of  duty. 

There  seems  to  have  been  a  prevalent  disregard  of  descent 
and  genealogies  among  these  Puritans.  Examination  of  the 

1  "The  true  marshaling  of  the  degrees  of  sovereign  honor,"  says 
Lord  Bacon,  "  are  these  :  in  the  first  place  are  '  conditores  imperiorum,' 
founders  of  States  and  Commonwealths  ;  ...  in  the  second  place  are 
*  legislators,'  'lawgivers,'  which  are  also  called  second  founders,  or 
lperpetui  principes '  (perpetual  rulers),  because  they  govern  by  their 
ordinances  after  they  are  gone."  (Lord  Bacon's  Essays,  Iv.)  Thomas 
Dudley  is  included  in  both  of  these  classes. 


io  THOMAS   DUDLEY  [CH.  r 

lives  of  the  governors  of  New  Plymouth  from  1620  to  1692, 
and  of  the  governors  of  Massachusetts  Bay  from  1630  to 
1689,  consisting  of  sixteen  biographical  sketches,  discloses 
only  two  governors,  John  Winthrop  and  Sir  Henry  Vane, 
whose  descent  J.  B.  Moore,  in  his  "  Memoirs  of  the  Ameri 
can  Governors,"  has  traced  beyond  the  second  generation. 
In  the  instance  of  Winthrop  we  have  only  three  Adam  Win- 
throps  in  succession.  A  striking  illustration  of  this  dearth 
of  genealogy  among  these  people  has  been  the  but  recently 
successful  effort  to  ascertain  who  the  father  of  Roger  Wil 
liams  was,  or  where  he  himself  was  born.  These  instances, 
and  many  more  which  might  be  given,  show  that  these  Puri 
tans  took  no  interest  in  such  matters,  indeed  entertained  an 
aversion  to  them.  It  is  probable  that  they  were  too  busy 
with  the  real  concerns  of  life.  In  some  cases,  moreover, 
they  had  been  disowned  and  discarded  by  their  families 
because  they  had  become  Puritans.  It  may  have  been  so  on 
the  Dudley  side  of  Governor  Dudley's  family,  if  the  theory  is 
correct  that  he  was  influenced  by  his  mother's  family  to  be 
come  a  Puritan.  In  all  such  cases  it  would  be  a  painful  sub 
ject  to  revert  to,  and  the  severance  from  their  former  home 
and  kindred  had  been  so  absolute  that  they  had  no  heart 
to  open  that  closed  and  forever  sealed  volume  of  their  lives. 
Governor  Dudley  lost  his  mother  in  infancy,  it  is  said, 
and  his  father  at  fourteen  years  of  age.  His  mother's  name 
has  not  been  preserved  for  us.  He  had  one  sister,  probably 
younger  than  himself,  of  whom  we  know  only  that  she  sur 
vived  their  parents,  and  the  orphans  seem  to  have  been  left 
to  the  care  of  kind  friends.  Cotton  Mather  says  Thomas 
Dudley  "  might  say  in  his  experience,  that  when  he  was 
forsaken  of  father  and  mother,  then  God  took  him  up,  and 
stirred  up  some  friends  that  took  special  charge  of  him  even 
in  his  childhood.  'Twas  said  that  there  was  five  hundred 
pounds  left  for  him  in  an  unknown  hand,  which  was  not 
so  long  concealed  but  that  it  came  to  light  in  due  time,  and 
was  seasonably  delivered  into  his  own  hands  after  he  came 
to  man's  estate ;  but  before  that  time  passed  through  many 


1576-159°]  EDUCATION  II 

changes  wherein  he  found  the  goodness  of  God,  both  in  way 
of  protection  and  preservation,  by  all  which  experiences  he 
was  the  better  prepared  for  such  eminent  services  for  the 
Church  of  God  which  he  was  in  after  time  called  unto."  l 

Mather  adds  that,  in  the  minority  and  childhood  of  Dud 
ley,  "  It  pleased  God  to  move  the  heart  of  one  Mrs.  Puefroy, 
a  gentlewoman  famed  in  the  parts  about  Northampton  for 
wisdom,  piety,  and  works  of  charity :  by  her  care  he  was 
trained  up  in  some  Latin  school,  wherein  he  learned  the 
rudiments  of  his  grammar,  the  which  he  improved  after 
wards  by  his  own  industry  to  considerable  advantage,  so  as 
he  was  able  even  in  his  age  to  understand  any  Latin  author 
as  well  as  the  best  clerk  in  the  country  that  had  been  con 
tinually  kept  to  study,  which  made  it  the  more  remarkable  in 
the  observation  of  some  ministers,  in  whose  hearing  he  was 
sometimes  occasioned  to  read  something  out  of  a  Latin  book, 
who,  by  his  false  pronunciation,  gathered  he  did  not  under 
stand  what  he  read,  but  upon  further  search  and  enquiry 
they  found  that  he  understood  the  language  as  well  as  them 
selves,  although  for  want  of  school  literature  he  missed  the 
true  pronunciation  according  to  the  rules  of  grammar  to 
which  children  are  exactly  held  at  school ;  and  probably 
after  the  decease  of  his  parents  he  had  not  opportunity  of 
that  advantage,  so  long  as  many  children  under  their  par 
ents'  wings  failed  to  enjoy  it."2  It  appears  that  the  Puef- 
roys  were  connected  by  marriage  with  the  Dudley  family, 
and  this  no  doubt  accounts  for  the  assistance  rendered  to 
Dudley  in  his  education  by  Mrs.  Puefroy.  Mather  is  so 
impressed  with  the  wisdom  and  piety  of  Mrs.  Puefroy  that 
we  can  seem  to  see  that  she  was  in  sympathy  with  his  Puri 
tanic  thought,  and  that  her  influence  may  early  have  given 
direction  to  the  religious  sentiments  of  the  boy,  who  was  full 
of  gratitude  to  her  for  extending  a  helping  hand  to  him,  and 
assisting  him  to  an  education  which  otherwise  he  could  never 
have  secured. 

1  Proc.  Mass.  Hist.  Soc.,  1870,  207;  Sutton-Dudleys,  24. 

2  Ib.,  208  ;  Sutton-Dudleys,  24. 


CHAPTER  II 

COTTON  MATHER  informs  us  that  so  soon  as  ever  Thomas 
Dudley  "  had  passed  his  childhood  he  was  by  those  that 
stood  his  best  friends  preferred  to  be  a  page  l  to  the  Earl  of 
Northampton,  under  whom  he  had  opportunity  to  learn 
courtship  and  whatever  belonged  to  civility  and  good  beha 
vior  ;  with  that  earl  he  tarried  till  he  was  ripe  for  higher 
services."2  The  year  is  not  mentioned  when  his  period  of 
childhood  was  passed  and  over,  but  we  may  well  understand 
it  to  have  been  in  about  his  fifteenth  year.  And  although 
it  is  contrary  to  Cotton  Mather,  we  have  some  reason  to 
think  that  he  continued  in  this  occupation  six  years,  more  or 
less,  until  his  majority. 

If  we  are  correct,  there  was  no  Earl  of  Northampton  until 
long  after  this  time,  when  Thomas  Dudley  was  about  forty- 
two  years  old.  We  find  in  "  Burke' s  Peerage  "  that  William 
Compton,  second  lord,  K.  R,  lord  president  of  the  Marches 
and  dominion  of  Wales,  who  succeeded  his  father  in  1589, 
as  Baron  Compton  of  Compton,  was  created  Earl  of  North 
ampton  August  2,  1618,  and  that  he  died  in  1630,  the  year 
that  Dudley  came  to  America.  His  great-grandfather,  Sir 
William  Compton,  Knt,  was  the  page  of  Henry  VIIL,  and 
was  with  him  at  the  Field  of  the  Cloth  of  Gold,  and  in  1522 
went  on  a  special  embassy  to  the  Emperor  Charles  V.  He 
built  the  house  Compton-Winyates,  near  to  Edge  Hill,  and 
nearer  to  the  village  of  Brailes,  in  Warwickshire,  England. 
This  was  one  of  the  stately  homes  of  the  Comptons,  where 

1  The  page  of  Dudley's  period  in  England,  as  will  appear  later  in  the 
present  chapter,  was  of  gentle  blood,  and  held  a  position  of  honor,  as 
is  there  shown  by  a  quotation  from  Ben  Jonson. 

2  Proc.  Mass.  Hist.  Soc.,  1870,  208. 


1590-98]  COMPTON-WINYATES  13 

it  is  probable  that  Thomas  Dudley  lived  a  portion  of  the 
time  that  he  was  with  the  family.  It  is  now  standing,  beau 
tiful  in  ruins.1  There  is  another  home  of  the  Comptons, 
Castle  Ashby,  eight  miles  southeast  of  Northampton,  the 
title  to  which  was  in  Sir  William,  but  it  was  not  much  occu 
pied  by  the  Compton  family  before  the  second  Lord  Comp- 
ton,  the  friend  of  Thomas  Dudley,  took  his  bride  there, 
Elizabeth,  daughter  and  heir  of  Sir  John  Spencer,  Knt, 
lord  mayor  of  London.  They  were  married  in  1 593.2  One 
of  the  requests  of  the  rich  heiress  of  Spencer  to  her  lord 
was  to  "  build  up  Ashby  House."  And  the  original  pile  may 
be  presumed  to  have  been  completed  when  King  James  I. 
and  his  queen  favored  its  noble  owner  with  a  visit  in  i6o5.3 
Castle  Ashby  is  at  present  the  deeply  interesting  seat  of 
the  Marquis  of  Northampton,  where  visitors  are  kindly 
welcomed  twice  each  week  to  view  the  pure  Elizabethan 
architecture,  plain  and  massive,  the  paintings,  and  exquisite 
marbles. 

Perhaps  there  is  no  house  in  the  kingdom  which  is  placed 
in  a  more  hidden  and  out-of-the-world  situation  than  Comp 
ton- Winyates.  It  stands  in  a  deep  hollow  of  the  Edge  Hill 
range  in  Warwickshire,  surrounded  with  ponds  and  woods. 

It  is  quite  evident  that  the  youth  of  Dudley  was  spent  in 
the  midst  of  wealth,  luxury,  and  splendor.  We  linger  with 
delight  ewer  every  place  and  thing  which  we  feel  quite  certain 
that  his  eyes  have  seen,  because  all  of  these,  however  small, 
contributed  to  make  him  what  he  was,  and  to  fit  him  for  the 
great  mission  before  him  beyond  the  sea.  "  These  armorial 
insignia,  thistles,  roses,  and  unions  of  thistle  and  rose,  record 
the  loyalty  of  the  house  in  the  reigns  of  Henry  VIII.  and 
James  I.,  in  which  the  Comptons  received  distinguished 
marks  of  the  royal  grace."  4  It  cannot  be  extravagant,  to 

1  Wm.  Hewitt's  Visits   to  Remarkable   Places,  Visit  to  Compton- 
Winyates. 

2  Northampton,  Burke's  Peerage,  1037. 

8  S.  C.  Hall's  Baronial  Halls  of  England,  i.  Castle  Ashby. 
4  Hewitt's  Visits  to  Remarkable  Places,  127. 


i4  THOMAS   DUDLEY  [CH.  n 

say  that  here  also  in  those  days  might  be  seen  all  the  gayety 
and  gallantry  of  Vanity  Fair. 

The  Comptons  were  not  Puritans  ;  they  intensely  enjoyed 
the  good  things  of  life.  Here,  in  all  the  excess  of  fashion  and 
of  gleeful  joviality,  Dudley,  in  robust  youth  and  even  to 
vigorous  manhood,  took  his  leading  share. 

When  in  later  years  Thomas  Dudley  was  governor  of 
Massachusetts,  a  Puritan  of  Puritans,  with  grave  responsi 
bilities,  in  peril  from  enemies  at  home  and  abroad,  and  above 
all  with  a  burning  zeal  for  the  welfare  of  Zion,  the  hope  of 
the  world,  when  all  his  "  serious  thoughts  had  rest  in  hea 
ven,"  how  often  he  must  have  recalled  his  childish  ways,  and 
recurred  to  those  frivolous  days  at  Compton-Winyates  and  at 
Ashby  Castle!  How  changed  at  last  from  the  splendor  of 
his  first  estate,  and  yet  in  the  current  of  human  events  how 
vastly  greater  was  the  last  than  the  first !  He  survives  in 
the  memory  of  men,  because  he  has  served  mankind  by  his 
sufferings  and  privations,  while  the  gay  throngs  who  joined 
him  in  the  dance  are  forgotten. 

There  is  little  if  any  doubt  that  the  family  of  Dudley  was 
friendly  to  the  Compton  family.  How  intimate  they  were 
we  do  not  know,  but  Sir  Henry,  the  first  Lord  Compton,  was 
knighted  by  the  Earl  of  Leicester  in  I566.1 

We  are  in  doubt  what  the  exact  duties  were  of  Dudley  as 
page  of  the  second  Lord  Compton,  but  we  may  fairly  judge 
that  they  were  such  as  would  be  usual  in  the  homes  of  people 
of  his  rank  at  that  period.  We  have  full  accounts  of  his 
great  fortune,  and  we  may  conclude,  from  the  magnificence 
of  the  homes  still  extant,  something  of  the  elegant  life  which 
abounded  there.  We  can  easily  accept  as  very  truthful  the 
words  of  Cotton  Mather,  that,  as  page  of  Lord  Compton,  "he 
had  opportunity  to  learn  courtship  and  whatever  belonged  to 
civility  and  good  behavior."2  It  is  quite  important  that  we 
should  note  these  words,  and  the  elegance  in  which  he  lived 

1  S.  C.  Hall's  Baronial  Halls  of  England,  i.  Castle  Ashby;  History 
of  Dudley  Family,  i.  42,  43. 

2  Proc.  Mass.  Hist.  Soc.,  1870,  208;  Magnalia,  i.  120. 


1590-98]  PAGE    OF   LORD    COMPTON  15 

in  this  early  period  of  his  life,  at  the  time  when  they  would 
make  the  most  indelible  impression  upon  his  character. 

I  think  that  we  cannot  too  thoughtfully  consider  these 
matters  in  his  early  education,  since  many  persons  have  been 
inclined  to  disparage  his  manners,  and  to  allege  that  he  was 
neither  courteous  nor  well-bred.  Certainly,  if  any  one  in  the 
colony  had  been  schooled  in  courtly  ceremony  and  knew  the 
respectful  and  gracious  usages  of  society,  it  was  Thomas 
Dudley,  trained  as  he  had  been  in  this  home,  and  later  in 
the  family  of  the  Earl  of  Lincoln.  These  two  were  among 
the  very  first  families  in  the  kingdom ;  and  it  must  have  been 
a  perpetual  education  in  refinement  to  have  had,  during  the 
period  of  an  ordinary  lifetime,  the  entree  to  these  homes,  and, 
more  than  that,  to  have  taken  up  one's  abode  in  them. 

There  can  be  no  doubt  that  Dudley  used  vigorous  English 
sometimes  in  expressing  his  abhorrence  of  wrong-doing,  his 
convictions  of  right,  and  we  are  thankful  that  he  exercised 
that  becoming  freedom. 

It  is  quite  evident  that  Dudley  belonged  to  a  distinguished 
family  from  his  having  this  position  of  page.  He  would 
have  been  apprenticed  to  learn  a  trade  had  he  been  of 
humble  parentage.  But,  instead  of  this,  he  took  a  position 
which  is  sought  by  youths  of  rank,  sons  of  nobility.  The 
story  of  pagedom  is  an  interesting  one,  and  although  we 
cannot  enter  fully  upon  it  here,  yet  to  make  it  evident  how 
far  removed  it  was  from  menial  service,  and  yet  how  near 
and  bordering  to  it  in  some  of  its  offices,  we  must  venture  a 
little  into  its  functions  and  duties.1 

1  Ben  Johnson,  who  was  born  two  years  earlier  than  Dudley,  has 
given  us  a  fine  contemporaneous  account  of  pagehood :  — 

"  by  a  line 

Of  institution,  from  our  ancestors 
Hath  been  derived  down  to  us,  and  received 
In  a  succession  for  the  noblest  way 
Of  brushing  up  our  youth  in  letters,  arms, 
Fair  mien,  discourses  civil,  exercise, 
And  all  the  blazon  of  a  gentleman  ! 
Where  can  he  learn  to  vault,  to  ride,  to  fence, 
To  move  his  body  gracefully,  to  speak 


16  THOMAS   DUDLEY  [CH.  n 

It  appears  to  have  had  its  origin  largely  in  knighthood, 
beginning  with  the  Crusades.  The  squire  and  the  page  were 
both  in  training  for  knighthood,  but  the  first  had  advanced 
farther  than  the  second.  A  chivalrous  education  demanded 
successive  stages  of  boyhood  and  youth,  while  knighthood 
was  reached  in  early  manhood. 

Every  feudal  court  and  castle  was  in  fact  a  school  of  chiv 
alry.  The  page  made  a  beginning  in  his  service  and  training 
when  he  was  between  seven  and  eight  years  old ;  and  dur 
ing  his  novitiate  of  seven  or  eight  years,  he  was  the  constant 
personal  attendant  of  both  his  master  and  his  mistress.  He 
waited  on  them  in  their  hall,  attended  in  the  chase,  served 
the  lady  in  her  bower,  and  followed  the  lord  to  the  camp. 
"From  the  chaplain  and  his  mistress  and  her  damsels  he 
learned  the  rudiments  of  religion,  of  rectitude,  and  of  love ; 
from  his  master  and  his  squires,  the  elements  of  military 
exercise." 

When  he  was  between  fifteen  and  sixteen  the  youth  became 
a  squire,  but  continued  to  wait  at  dinner  with  the  pages, 
though  in  a  more  dignified  manner.  He  served,  carved,  and 
helped  the  dishes.  He  offered  the  first  or  principal  cup  of 
wine  to  his  master  and  his  guests,  and  carried  to  them  the 
ewer  and  napkin  before  and  after  meals.  He  laid  the  tables 
for  games,  and  shared  in  the  pastimes  for  which  he  had  pre 
pared.  His  military  training  consumed  more  and  more  his 
time  and  thought.  Skill  in  horsemanship  was  one  of  his 
great  accomplishments.1  At  length  he  took  his  sword  to 
the  priest,  who  laid  it  on  the  altar,  blessed  it,  and  returned  it. 
It  was  the  squire's  duty  to  display  and  guard  in  battle  the 
banner  of  the  baron  or  the  pennon  of  the  knight,  to  supply 
him  with  his  own  horse  if  his  was  disabled,  to  receive  and 
keep  his  prisoners,  to  fight  by  his  side  if  he  was  unequally 

The  language  pure,  or  to  turn  his  mind, 
Or  manners,  more  to  the  harmony  of  nature, 
Than  in  these  nurseries  of  nobility  ?  " 

1  Hist,  of  Bayard,  the  good  chevalier  sans  peur  et  sans  reprocfie, 
chap,  iii.,  iv. 


1590-98]  PAGE   AND   SOLDIER  17 

matched,  to  rescue  him  if  captured,  and  bury  him  honorably 
when  dead.  If  he  had  borne  himself  well  for  six  or  seven 
years,  our  squire  was  dubbed  a  knight.1 

If  we  are  correct  in  our  theory  that  Dudley  left  the  ser 
vice  of  Lord  Compton  in  his  twenty-first  year,  and  then,  with 
a  commission  from  Queen  Elizabeth,  went  to  take  part  in 
the  war  in  France,  we  may  regard  it  the  natural  step  in  his 
advancement  from  a  page  to  a  soldier.  It  is  also  reasonable 
to  conclude  that  Lord  Compton  assisted  him  in  obtaining  his 
commission  as  captain,  because  he  showed  his  earnest  friend 
ship  years  after  this  by  recommending  Thomas  Dudley  to 
the  Earl  of  Lincoln.  It  was  certainly  a  very  honorable  posi 
tion  which  he  held  as  the  page  of  so  distinguished  a  man. 
The  influence  from  association  so  early  in  life,  for  so  many 
years;  with  the  family  of  Lord  Compton,  and  with  their  emi 
nent  friends,  must  have  been  constant  during  his  life. 

The  seventy-seven  years  of  Dudley's  life,  from   1576  to 

1  Knighthood  :  Ency.  Brit.,  9th  ed.,  p.  117;  Sainte  Palaye,  Memories, 
i.  36;  Mills,  Hist,  of  Chivalry,  i.  chap.  ii.  The  office  of  page,  like  every 
thing  else,  changed  with  new  customs.  It  survived  longest  in  France, 
down  indeed  until  the  Revolution.  Queen  Victoria  now  has  pages,  but 
they  are  servants  who  are  recompensed  in  money,  and  not  purely  by 
love  and  honor,  sometimes  by  commissions  in  the  army.  "  The  most 
graceful  volunteer  page  that  ever  existed  was  Edward,  the  Black  Prince, 
who,  when  the  noble,  valiant,  and  unfortunate  John,  King  of  France, 
was  captive  in  the  tent  of  the  prince's  father,  King  Edward,  waited  on 
the  illustrious  prisoner  as  he  sat  at  table,  pouring  out  his  wine,  and 
handing  to  him  his  napkin.  When  the  parents  of  George  III.  of  Eng 
land,  the  Prince  and  Princess  of  Wales,  were  at  dinner,  Prince  George 
and  his  brother  Edward  used  to  stand  apart  and  wait  upon  their  father 
and  mother."  (Temple  Bar  Mag.,  No.  42,  p.  92.) 

Antinous,  the  beautiful  page  of  Hadrian,  in  the  second  century,  long 
before  the  age  of  chivalry,  gave  his  life  for  his  master,  as  it  is  thought. 
It  was  believed  by  the  ancients  to  be  a  most  noble  instance  of  altruism. 
Hadrian  enrolled  him  among  the  gods,  and  caused  statues  of  him  to  be 
set  up  in  almost  every  part  of  the  world  ;  oracles  were  delivered  in  his 
name.  "  A  star  between  the  eagle  and  the  zodiac,  which  the  courtiers  of 
the  emperor  pretended  had  then  first  made  its  appearance  and  was  the 
soul  of  Antinous,  received  his  name,  which  it  still  bears."  (Smith's  Diet. 
Gr.  and  Rom.  Biog.  and  Mythology,  i.  192.) 


18  THOMAS   DUDLEY  [CH.  n 

1653,  were  very  important  in  the  world's  history.  But  the 
events  of  the  one  or  two  preceding  centuries  had  been  pre 
paring  the  way  in  Europe  for  an  accelerated  advancement 
in  almost  everything  pertaining  to  human  life  and  civiliza 
tion.  This  period  was  conspicuous  in  improved  agriculture 
and  manufactures,  in  the  more  general  diffusion  of  knowledge 
among  the  masses  of  the  people,  in  individual  freedom  of 
opinion  in  politics  and  religion,  tending  toward  democracy, 
all  of  which  resulted  no  doubt  largely  from  a  reformation  in 
religion.1 

The  invention  of  the  mariner's  compass  in  1302,  of  gun 
powder  in  1320,  Wickliffe's  translation  of  the  Bible  in  1380 
(only  in  manuscript  until  1731),  of  printing  with  movable 
type  in  1440,  the  discovery  of  America  in  1492,  and  the  re 
vival  of  learning  from  1450  to  1550,  were  some  of  the  events 
which  led  up  to  greater  activity,  and  to  higher  living  and 
thinking. 

Of  the  importance  of  the  period  in  which  Dudley  lived,  it 
is  enough  to  say  that  it  began  in  the  Elizabethan  age,  glori 
ous  in  English  literature.  He  was  contemporary  with  Gali 
leo,  Spenser,  Sir  Philip  Sidney,  Raleigh,  Shakspere,  Spinoza, 
Jonson,  Beaumont  and  Fletcher,  Lord  Bacon,  Lord  Coke, 
Milton,  Herbert,  Herrick,  Richard  Hooker,  John  Bunyan, 
Donne,  Dryden,  Evelyn,  Hobbes,  Law,  Locke,  Marlowe,  Sir 
Isaac  Newton,  Pepys,  Selden,  Tasso,  Temple,  Sir  William 
Waller,  and  Walton. 

The  Geneva  Bible  was  translated  and  completed  in  1576, 
the  year  that  Dudley  was  born  ;  while  the  authorized  King 
James  translation  appeared  in  1611,  when  he  was  thirty-five 
years  of  age.  Countless  thousands  of  vernacular  Bibles  were 
printed,  and  in  a  short  time  were  in  the  hands,  and  inspiringi 
the  minds,  of  the  masses,  creating  a  new  Europe,  which, 
regenerated,  was  destined  to  colonize  America. 

1  "  There  never  was  anywhere,"  says  Lord  Jeffrey,  "  anything  like 
the  sixty  or  seventy  years  that  elapsed  from  the  middle  of  the  reign  of 
Elizabeth  to  the  Restoration."  (Botta's  Hand-book  Universal  Lit.,  450. 
See  also  T.  W.  May's  Democracy  in  Europe,  p.  Ixv. ;  2  Ib.,  375,  376.) 


1590-98]  WAR  IN   FRANCE  19 

Dudley  had  now,  in  1 597,  reached  the  ripe  age  of  twenty- 
one  years,  which  date  Mather  is  supposed  to  refer  to  when 
he  said  that  he  tarried  till  he  was  ripe  for  higher  services.1 
He  no  doubt  tenderly  and  proudly  cherished  the  memory 
of  his  heroic  father,  and  the  old  Protestant  cause,  for  which 
the  father  had  died  in  a  foreign  land,  far  from  his  kindred  ; 
recollections  calculated  to  arouse  his  enthusiasm,  and  kindle 
his  deepest  emotions. 

His  inborn  martial  spirit,  descending  from  generations  of 
heroes,  was  in  readiness  for  action,  and  eager  for  mortal 
combat. 

The  announcement  was  made  that  the  queen  must  have 
soldiers  to  fight  the  armies  of  Philip  II.  of  Spain,  the 
Leaguers,  or  their  successors.  They  were  to  be  commanded 
by  the  gallant  Henry  of  Navarre,  under  whose  daring  leader 
ship  Dudley's  noble  father  had  fallen  seven  years  before. 
The  young  men  of  Northampton,  accustomed  to  such  invi 
tations,  gave  little  heed  to  this  call  for  troops,  until  Dudley, 
with  that  undaunted  spirit  which  always  characterized  him, 
came  to  the  front,  and  attracted  them  to  his  leadership.  He 
held,  through  the  influence  of  friends,  a  commission  as  cap 
tain  from  Queen  Elizabeth ;  he  had  also  character,  prestige, 
and  public  confidence.  It  is  of  great  importance,  in  studying 
the  quality  and  character  of  a  man,  to  observe  carefully  the 
estimate  of  him  by  his  youthful  associates.  No  other  opin 
ion  of  his  gifts  and  qualities  will  ever  be  more  thorough 
or  more  permanent,  although  the  subsequent  growth  and 
development  in  some  persons  have  astonished  their  early 
friends.2 

He  had,  in  the  unconscious  days  of  boyhood  before  he  had 
taken  on  the  mask  which  humanity  later  in  life  assumes  to 
hide  its  motives  and  its  inmost  thoughts,  won  the  golden 
opinions,  and,  more  than  that,  the  firm  confidence,  of  his  com 
rades,  to  such  an  extent  that  they  prepared  to  risk  every 
thing  in  foreign  war  under  his  intrepid  leadership. 

1  Proc.  Mass.  Hist.  Soc.,  1870,  208. 

2  "  Childhood  shows  the  man  as  morn  the  day."    (Milton.) 


20  THOMAS   DUDLEY  [CH.  n 

Mather  says  :  "  The  young  lads  about  Northampton  were 
none  of  them  willing  to  enter  into  the  service  till  a  commis 
sion  was  sent  down  to  this  young  gallant  to  be  their  captain, 
and  then  presently  there  were  fourscore  that  were  willing  to 
list  themselves  under  him  as  their  captain.  With  these  he 
was  sent  over  into  France,  which,  being  at  that  time  an 
Academy  of  Arms  as  well  as  of  Arts,  he  had  opportunity 
to  furnish  himself  with  such  military  skill  as  fitted  him  to 
command  in  the  field  as  well  as  on  the  bench.  The  service 
that  he  and  his  company  were  put  upon  in  France  was  to 
help  Amiens,  before  which  city  the  King  Henry  IV.  at  that 
time  lay." 

It  is  an  incident  of  interest  that  ten  years  previous  to  this 
date  the  beautiful  Mary,  Queen  of  Scots,  had  been  executed 
at  Fotheringay  Castle,  less  than  thirty  miles  north  of  his 
home,  when  Dudley  was  eleven  years  of  age.  She  was  an 
unfortunate  victim  in  that  same  war  which  deprived  him  of 
his  father  three  years  later,  and  which  he  himself  was  now 
about  to  enter.1 

We  are  already  informed  by  Mather  that  King  Henry  lay 
before  Amiens,  and  that  Dudley  had  gone  to  assist  him. 
The  city  had  been  captured  by  the  Spaniards  in  1 597  through 
a  stratagem  so  petty  that  it  was  more  unbearable  than  a 
downright  battle  and  defeat.  It  was  retaken  without  blood 
shed,  however,  by  King  Henry,  Dudley  and  his  company 
participating  in  the  siege,  which  ended  six  months  later,  in 
September,  in  its  capitulation.2 

1  John   Hosack's   Mary,  Queen  of   Scots,  ii.  410;    H.  M.  Baird's 
Huguenots  and  Henry  of  Navarre,  i.  284. 

2  There  were  many  notable  events  in  the  history  of  Amiens,  which 
would  make  it  an  attractive  place  to  visit  after  the  siege  was  over ;  and 

.  Dudley  himself,  by  his  delay  there,  has  invested  the  place  with  a  new 
fascination  for  those  of  us  who  are  interested  in  his  life  work.  Peter 
the  Hermit,  who  preached  the  first  Crusade  and  kindled  Europe  with 
his  burning  zeal,  was  born  here  in  the  middle  of  the  eleventh  century. 
William  of  Malmesbury  says  :  u  The  Welshman  left  his  hunting,  the 
Scotchman  his  fellowship  with  vermin,  the  Dane  his  drinking  party, 
the  Norwegian  his  raw  fish."  The  statue  of  Peter  stands  in  front  of 


1590-98]  CATHEDRAL   OF   AMIENS  21 

Amiens  is  divided  by  eleven  beautiful  trout  streams,  and 
was  styled  by  Louis  XL  "the  little  Venice"  of  France.  It 
was  natural  that  Ruskin,  who  had  characterized  the  Ca 
thedral  of  St.  Mark  in  Venice  as  the  Book-Temple  which 
"  shone  from  afar  off  like  the  star  of  the  Magi," 1  should 
designate  this  cathedral  as  the  "  Bible  of  Amiens."  We 
have,  perhaps,  lingered  too  long  over  this  interesting  local 
ity  ;  our  excuse  is  that  here  is  a  structure  which  keeps  its 
youth.  If  Thomas  Dudley  entered  the  portals  of  this  tem 
ple,  trod  its  pavement,  or  looked  up  into  its  fretted  vaults, 
or  studied  its  three  magnificent  rose-windows,  or  if  the  early 
influence  of  Puritanism  restrained  him  from  seeking  the 
buildings  dedicated  to  Popery  and  idolatry,  which  we  do  not 
believe,  since  Puritanism  came  to  him  after  his  return  home 
(see  Mather) ;  if  he  gazed  every  succeeding  day,  as  he  must 
have  done,  upon  its  noble  exterior,  and  saw  its  lofty  spire, 
four  hundred  and  twenty -two  feet  in  height,  —  all  the 
strength,  beauty,  and  grandeur  which  we  behold  in  it  to-day 
was  then  visible  to  him.  The  perpetuity  of  this  great  work 
of  men's  hands  seems  to  extinguish  time,  and  make  suc 
ceeding  generations  of  men  contemporary ;  they  all  seem  in 
imagination  to  walk  the  same  streets  and  pavements  with  us. 

This  siege  was  of  great  importance,  because  here  was  the 
last  resistance  of  Philip  II.  The  city  was  completely  block- 

the  great  cathedral,  which  dates  from  1220,  "and  is  the  crowning  glory 
of  Gothic  art."  (Charles  H.  Moore's  Gothic  Architecture,  74.)  It  has 
been  well  said  that  an  "  abbey  church  of  the  thirteenth  century  .  .  . 
is  matchless,  priceless,  sacred ;  such  as  man  on  this  earth  will  never 
replace,  nor  ever  again  see."  (Frederic  Harrison's  The  Meaning  of 
History,  437.)  John  Ruskin  asks:  "Who  built  it,  shall  we  ask? 
God,  and  Man,  is  the  first  and  most  true  answer.  The  stars  in  their 
courses  built  it,  and  the  nations.  Greek  Athena  labors  here,  and 
Roman  Father  Jove,  and  Guardian  Mars.  The  Gaul  labors  here,  and 
the  Frank;  knightly  Norman,  —  mighty  Ostrogoth,  —  and  wasted 
anchorite  of  Idumea."  (Our  Fathers  have  Told  Us,  The  Bible  of 
Amiens,  sec.  12,  p.  371.)  "  But  of  all,  simplest,  completest,  and  most 
authoritative  in  its  lessons  to  the  active  mind  of  North  Europe,  is  this 
on  the  foundation  stones  of  Amiens."  (Ib.  sec.  57,  p.  410.) 
I  1  Stones  of  Venice,  ii.  chap.  ix.  sec.  Ixxi. 


22  THOMAS   DUDLEY  [CH.  n 

aded  by  the  French  and  allied  lines  ;  and  the  Spaniards, 
despairing  of  relief,  at  length  capitulated  on  the  25th  of 
September,  1597.  On  April  15,  1598,  Henry  IV.  issued 
the  memorable  Edict  of  Nantes,  which  protected  Protestants 
for  nearly  a  century;  and  finally,  on  May  2,  1598,  the  Peace 
of  Vervins  was  signed.1 

The  year  1598  was,  in  France,  an  eventful  one.  She  then, 
on  May  2,  at  the  Peace  of  Vervins,  began  her  record  in 
modern  history,  and  left  behind  her  mediaeval  annals.  Her 
monarchy  was  thenceforth  concentrated  and  absolute,  and  a 
number  of  great  ministers  came  forth  in  succession  to  direct 
her  course  :  Sully,  Richelieu,  and  Colbert.  Thomas  Dudley, 
the  second  governor  at  the  beginning  of  this  epoch,  was 
only  an  humble  captain  in  her  army,  whose  great  commander 
had  been  false  to  the  Queen  of  England,  and  to  the  Pro 
testant  cause.  Nevertheless,  it  was  a  notable  era  in  human 
history,  and  furnishes  a  graphic  episode  in  the  personal 
record  of  the  subject  of  this  biography.2 

Lord  Macaulay  has  given  us  a  comprehensive  statement 
of  the  political  situation  at  this  important  juncture.  "Dur- 

1  H.  M.  Baird's  Huguenots  and  Henry  of  Navarre,  ii.  400-421. 

2  Henry  of  Navarre,  for  some  months  previous  to  his  assassination, 
May  14,  1610,  was  seriously  engaged,  without  success,  in  uniting  fifteen 
states   of   Europe  into   one  magnificent   Christian  republic.     Queen 
Elizabeth  of  England  was  said  to  be  in  sympathy  with  this  enterprise. 
(H.  M.  Baird's  Huguenots  and  Henry  of  Navarre,  ii.  491,  492  ;  Memoirs 
of  Sully,  v.  62;  Works  of  Charles  Sumner,  ii.  233.) 

It  is  said  in  the  Convention  of  1787,  which  framed  our  national  Con 
stitution,  that  "  the  project  of  Henry  IV.  and  his  statesmen  was  but 
the  picture  in  miniature  of  the  great  portrait  to  be  exhibited  "  in  our 
Federal  Republic.  (James  Madison's  Papers,  by  Henry  D.  Gilpin,  ii. 
956.) 

We  do  not  claim  that  Dudley,  who  was  a  captain  in  the  army  of 
Henry  in  1597-98,  brought  to  our  shores  the  dreams  of  federation  so 
dearly  cherished  by  the  King  of  France.  It  was,  however,  a  memorable 
occurrence,  that  he,  as  a  commissioner,  assisted  in  the  organization  of 
the  New  England  Confederacy  in  1643,  that  beginning  of  the  union  of 
colonies  here  which,  with  its  accessions  of  territory,  became  in  the  full 
ness  of  time  the  United  States  of  America.  (Richard  Frothingham's 
Rise  of  the  Republic  of  the  United  States,  33-71.) 


1590-98]  WAR  ENDED  23 

ing  the  greater  part  of  Elizabeth's  reign,  therefore,  the  Puri 
tans  in  the  House  of  Commons,  though  sometimes  mutinous, 
felt  no  disposition  to  array  themselves  in  systematic  oppo 
sition  to  the  government.  But,  when  the  defeat  of  the 
Armada,  the  successful  resistance  of  the  United  Provinces 
to  the  Spanish  power,  the  firm  establishment  of  Henry  the 
Fourth  on  the  throne  of  France,  and  the  death  of  Philip 
the  Second,  had  secured  the  state  and  the  church  against 
all  danger  from  abroad,  an  obstinate  struggle,  destined  to 
last  during  several  generations,  instantly  began  at  home."  1 

Peace  being  now  concluded,  and  his  services  no  longer 
required,  with  his  company  Dudley  returned  to  England, 
only  to  enter  upon  new,  very  important,  and  as  yet  untried 
fields  in  his  career. 

1  Macaulay's  Hist.  Eng.,  i.  47. 


CHAPTER  III 

DUDLEY  was  unexpectedly  discharged  as  a  soldier,  without 
fighting,  but  he  had  obtained  valuable  education  and  disci 
pline  in  his  preparation,  and  in  the  expedition  to  France, 
which  were  destined  to  be  of  important  service  to  him  in 
future  years.  It  was  doubtless  a  great  disappointment  both 
to  him  and  to  his  company  to  retire  without  a  sight  of  battle, 
or  an  opportunity  to  win  undying  glory.  They  were  none 
of  them  brimful  of  experience,  like  the  Duke  of  Wellington 
when  he  exclaimed,  "  Take  my  word  for  it,  if  you  had  seen 
but  one  day  of  war,  you  would  pray  to  Almighty  God  that 
you  might  never  see  such  a  thing  again." 

Marriage  was  the  next  important  business  which  claimed 
Dudley's  attention  on  his  return  to  England.  War  and  love 
each  require  courage  ;  faint  hearts  cannot  win  in  either. 

He  was  married  to  Miss  Dorothy  Yorke,  the  daughter  of 
Edmond  Yorke  of  Cotton  End,  in  the  county  of  Northamp 
ton,  England.  Their  son,  Samuel  Dudley,  was  baptized  £he 
3<Dth  day  of  November,  1608,  at  All-Saints',  Northampton.1 

Cotton  Mather  says  that  "  after  Captain  Dudley  returned 
into  England,  he  settled  again  about  Northampton,  and  there 
meeting  with  a  gentlewoman  both  of  good  estate  and  good 
extraction,  he  entered  into  marriage  with  her,  and  then  took 
up  his  habitation  for  some  time  in  that  part  of  the  country, 
where  he  enjoyed  the  ministry  of  Mr.  Dodd,  Mr.  Cleever, 
and  one  Mr.  Winston,  who  was  a  very  solid  and  judicious 
divine  as  any  thereabouts,  though  he  never  published  any 
thing  in  print  as  some  others  did."  2 

Captain  Dudley  appears  to  have  been  six  years  older  than 

1  Dean  Dudley's  History  of  Dudley  Family,  App.,  ii.  24. 

2  Proc.  Mass.  Hist.  Soc.,  1870,  209. 


1598-1616]  CLERK   OF  JUDGE   NICOLLS  25 

his  wife,  who  must  have  been  born  in  1582,  since  she  is  said 
to  have  died  at  the  age  of  61  at  Roxbury,  Mass.,  in  1643. l 
There  were  five  children  by  this  marriage. 

It  interests  us  to  note  that  Mrs.  Dudley  was  a  "  gentle 
woman  both  of  good  estate  and  good  extraction,"  because, 
although  it  may  not  establish  his  social  position,  it  carries 
a  strong  probability  that  he  also  was  of  "good  extraction," 
and  this  is  confirmed  by  all  of  the  authorities,  who  agree  that 
he  was  of  gentle  blood. 

Mather  says  that  Dudley  "  was  taken  by  Judge  Nicolls  to 
be  his  clerk,  who,  being  his  kinsman  also,  by  the  mother's 
side,  took  more  special  notice  of  him ;  and  from  him,  being 
a  prompt  young  man,  he  learned  much  skill  in  the  law,  and 
attained  to  such  abilities  as  rendered  him  capable  of  per 
forming  a  secretary's  place,  for  he  was  known  to  have  a  very 
good  pen,  to  draw  up  any  writing  in  succinct  and  apt  expres 
sions,  which  so  far  commended  him  to  the  favor  of  the  judge, 
that  he  would  never  have  dismissed  him  from  his  service, 
but  have  preferred  him  to  some  more  eminent  and  profit 
able  employment  under  him,  but  that  he  was  prevented  by 
death."2 

We  are  unable  to  determine  what  year  Dudley  went  with 
Judge  Nicolls.  Mather  evidently  tells  us  that  it  was  before 
he  went  to  war  in  France  (we  think  that  it  was  after),  but 
he  also  assures  us  that  the  judge  was  so  much  pleased  with 
the  services  of  Dudley  that  only  death  itself  could  and  did 
separate  them.  We  are  informed  that  Judge  Nicolls  died 
in  August,  1616.  We  thus  conclude  that  Thomas  Dudley 
certainly  was  his  clerk  in  1616,  or  eighteen  years  after  the 
war.  That  he  was  his  clerk  before  the  war  is  improbable. 

We  may  reasonably  understand,  as  we  have  already  men 
tioned,  that  Dudley  did  not  leave  Lord  Compton  until  he 
was  twenty-one  years  old.  He  reached  his  majority,  as  we 
have  seen,  the  year  he  went  to  France,  1597,  where  he 
remained  a  year  or  more. 

1  Dean  Dudley's  History  of  Dudley  Family,  i.  276. 

2  Proc.  Mass.  Hist.  Soc.,  1870,  208;  also  Sutton-Dudleys,  25. 


26  THOMAS   DUDLEY  [CH.  m 

We  cannot  give  too  much  attention  to  the  life  and  charac 
ter  of  the  Hon.  Augustine  Nicolls,  because  he  must  have 
had  a  marked  influence  upon  the  character  of  Dudley. 

It  is  said  that  "  Nicolls  entered  at  the  Middle  Temple  in 
London,  November  5,  1575  ;  that  he  became  a  reader  or 
lecturer  there  in  1602,  and  in  the  same  year  was  summoned 
to  take  the  degree  of  the  Coif,  which,  in  consequence  of  the 
death  of  Elizabeth,  was  renewed  by  King  James,  by  whom 
he  was  knighted ;  that  his  arguments  in  Westminster  Hall 
are  reported  both  by  Coke  and  Croke  for  the  next  nine 
years,  till  1612,  when  he  was  elevated  to  be  judge  of  the 
Common  Pleas.  Three  years  after,  he  was  appointed  chan 
cellor  of  Charles,  Prince  of  Wales.  Four  years  he  sat  and 
judged  with  much  success,  and  then  died  suddenly  at  Ken 
dall,  county  of  Westmoreland,  August,  1616,  while  on  the 
summer  circuit.  He  was  buried  there,  and  has  a  monument 
in  the  Kendall  church."  * 

1  Foss's  Judges  of  Eng. ;  History  of  Dudley  Family,  i.  44,  note  ;  R. 
Thompson's  Historical  Essay  on  the  Magna  Charta,  197,  198. 

I  quote  in  full  the  account  of  the  judge  by  Thomas  Fuller,  written 
in  the  seventeenth  century,  as  it  appears  in  Fuller's  History  of  the 
Worthies  of  England:  "  Sir  Augustine  Nicolls,  son  to  Thomas  Nicolls, 
Sergeant  at  Law,  was  born  at  Eckton  in  this  County  (Northampton). 
Now  according  to  the  rigour  of  our  fundamental  premises,  he  cometh 
not  within  our  cognizance  under  this  title,  yet  his  merit  will  justify  us 
in  presenting  his  character. 

"  He  was  bred  in  the  study  of  the  Common  Law,  wherein  he  attained 
to  such  knowledge  that  Queen  Elizabeth  made  him  a  King  James  his 
own  Sergeant ;  whence  he  was  freely  preferred  one  of  the  Judges  of  the 
Common  Pleas ;  I  say  freely  King  James  commonly  called  him  '  the 
Judge  that  would  give  no  money.' 

"  Not  to  speak  of  his  moral  qualifications  and  subordinate  abilities, 
he  was  renowned  for  his  special  judiciary  endowments ;  patience  to 
hear  both  parties  all  they  could  say,  a  happy  memory,  a  singular  saga 
city  to  search  into  the  material  circumstances ;  exemplary  integrity, 
even  to  the  rejection  of  gratuities  after  judgment  given. 

"  His  forbearing  to  travail  on  the  Lord's  day  wrought  a  reformation 
on  some  of  his  own  Order.  He  loved  plain  and  profitable  preaching; 
being  wont  to  say,  *  I  know  not  what  you  call  Puritanical  sermons ;  but 
they  come  nearest  to  my  conscience.' 


1598-1616]  COURT  OF   COMMON   PLEAS  27 

The  exalted  position  of  Judge  Nicolls  and  his  eminent 
judicial  endowments  are  assured.  And  it  goes  far  in  aiding 
us  to  determine  the  powers  and  qualities  of  Dudley,  that  this 
able  judge,  who  was  educated  to  appreciate  the  qualifica 
tions  and  fitness  of  men,  employed  Dudley  as  his  clerk.  We 
shall  have  occasion  hereafter  to  notice  in  the  documents 
and  letters  of  Dudley  the  qualities  ascribed  to  him  in  com 
position  by  Mather.1 

It  must,  on  the  other  hand,  always  be  accounted  good 
fortune  on  the  part  of  Dudley,  and  creditable  to  his  discern 
ment  and  incorruptibility,  that  in  the  midst  of  so  much  wick 
edness  in  high  places  he  made  choice  of  such  a  friend  and 
patron  as  Judge  Nicolls,  of  whom  it  could  be  said  freely 
that  he  was  of  "exemplary  integrity,  even  to  the  rejection 
of  gratuities  after  judgment  given."  And  by  King  James 
he  was  commonly  and  freely  called  "the  judge  that  would 
give  no  money."  This  was  about  the  time  that  the  Lord 
Chancellor  of  England,  Sir  Francis  Bacon,  was  found  guilty 
of  bribery  of  the  most  flagrant  sort. 

It  would  be  difficult  indeed  to  overestimate  the  effect  upon 
Dudley  of  association  with  such  a  lawyer  and  upright  judge 
of  the  Court  of  Common  Pleas,  in  and  about  Westminster,  at 
that  eventful  period  in  English  history  when  many  of  the 
leading  cases  in  the  common  law  were  tried  by  great  mas 
ters  like  Coke,  as  precedents  to  guide  the  succeeding  gener 
ations  of  jurists;  and  also  of  being,  year  after  year,  at  the 
very  heart  and  centre  of  the  religious  ancl  political  agitations* 
of  that  remarkable  period,  when  and  where  the  doctrine  of 
the  Divine  Right  of  Kings  was  entering  upon  its  life-and- 
death  contest  with  that  modern  teaching  that  government 

"  The  speech  of  Caesar  is  commonly  known,  '  Oportet  Imperatarem 
stantem  mori ; '  which  Bishop  Jewell  altered,  and  applyed  to  himself, 
4  Decet  Episcopum  conscionantem  mori ; '  of  this  man  it  may  be  said, 
'Judex  mortuus  est  Jura  dans,'  dying  in  his  calling  as  he  went  the 
Northern  Circuit;  and  hath  a  fair  monument  in  Kendall  church  in 
Westmoreland." 

1  Button-Dudleys,  25. 


28  THOMAS   DUDLEY  [CH.  m 

is  by  the  consent  of  the  governed  ;  which  latter  doctrine 
was  only  the  individualism,  including  the  right  of  private 
judgment,  of  the  Reformation,  transferred  to  the  domain  of 
politics.  It  is  simply  the  Christian  view  of  the  great  value 
and  importance  of  each  individual  soul  both  in  religion  and 
politics.  Puritanism  was  both  the  cause  and  effect  of  this 
sort  of  agitation. 

There  were  other  scarcely  less  wonderful  things  happen 
ing  in  that  same  little  city  of  London,  containing  only  at 
that  time  about  one  hundred  and  sixty  thousand  inhabitants. 
King  James's  translation  of  the  Bible  was  being  made  in  the 
Jerusalem  Chamber  at  Westminster  Abbey.  Francis  Bacon, 
who  ranks  in  the  very  first  order  of  genius  in  the  history  of 
the  English-speaking  people,  was  effecting  in  science  a  revo 
lution  which  will  always  be  regarded  among  the  highest 
achievements  of  the  human  intellect ;  while  at  the  Globe  and 
Blackfriars  theatres  were  being  produced  by  Shakspere  and 
played,  with  him  as  an  actor,  the  most  powerful  and  com 
plete  dramas  which  have  appeared  in  any  language. 

Shakspere  must  have  been  a  familiar  personage,  well 
known  by  name  at  least  to  Dudley,  and  doubtless  often  seen 
by  him  on  the  streets  of  London.  The  city  was  small ;  most 
persons  knew  by  sight  every  notable  person.  Dudley  is  not 
believed  to  have  yet  become  so  subdued  by  Puritanism  as 
to  look  upon  amusements  as  dangerous  which  were  furnished 
with  great  historic  teachings,  or  exhibited  human  passion 
under  proper  social  limitations.  It  might  have  been  other 
wise  after  1630,  when  he  was  a  leading  Puritan  emigrant. 
There  were  no  newspapers  and  few  books,  and  the  plays 
of  Shakspere  must  have  then  had  an  immense  attraction, 
because  of  the  newness  of  such  historic  dramas,  and  because 
his  associations  and  family  and  his  own  terse  and  compre 
hensive  style  of  composition  leads  one  at  once  to  think  that 
Dudley  of  all  persons  would  delight  in  those  marvelous 
works  of  genius,  until  his  religious  prejudice,  caught  up  from 
the  age  in  which  he  lived  and  the  air  which  he  breathed, 
might  question  their  usefulness. 


1598-1616]    DUDLEY  AND   WESTMINSTER   HALL  29 

The  mind  of  Dudley  was  both  capacious  and  retentive, 
and  this  review  of  the  larger  influences  operating  with  con 
centrated  force  during  the  years  of  early  manhood  will  help 
to  connect  and  interpret  the  few  and  scattered  particulars  of 
his  life,  and  furnish  us  with  an  explanation  of  many  matters 
in  his  subsequent  career. 

There  are  many  ancient  historic  buildings  which  to-day 
in  our  walks  about  London  attract  our  earnest  attention, 
because  within  their  antiquated  walls  the  greatest  scenes 
and  events  in  the  annals  of  our  mother  country  have  been 
enacted.  Thomas  Dudley  knew  them  thoroughly.  West 
minster  Abbey  is,  for  example,  the  Walhalla  of  England, 
under  whose  protecting  roof  repose  her  great  men  who  have 
filled  history  with  their  deeds  and  the  earth  with  their  re 
nown.  Its  beautiful  chapter  house  became  the  Parliament 
house  of  England  in  the  thirteenth  century,  and  thence  down 
to  the  dissolution  of  the  religious  orders. 

Westminster  Hall l  is  another,  with  the  largest  and  grand 
est  deeply  and  beautifully  framed  timber  roof  in  the  world, 
dating  from  1397,  and  the  Hall  itself  from  William  Rufus. 
Here  is  indeed  hallowed  ground.  All  of  the  great  men  in 
English  history  for  the  last  eight  hundred  years  have  paced 
to  and  fro  within  its  glorious  walls.  Here  the  British  sov 
ereigns  have  held  their  coronation  feasts.  Here  David  of 
Scotland  and  John  of  France  were  entertained  in  their  cap 
tivity  by  the  chivalrous  Edward  III.  And  beneath  this 
far-famed  roof  the  noblest  and  bravest  men  of  our  race  have 
nerved  themselves  against  bitter  fate  and  the  edicts  of  in 
exorable  despots.  Where  shall  we  find  worthier  martyrs 
than  Sir  William  Wallace ;  the  wise  and  good  Sir  Thomas 
More ;  the  noble-minded  Lord  Protector  Somerset ;  Lord 

1  The  court-room  of  the  Court  of  Common  Pleas  was  entered  from 
Westminster  Hall,  by  a  door  on  the  west  side  nearly  half  way  down  the 
hall.  Dudley  probably  passed  here  daily  for  many  years  with  Judge 
Nicolls,  always  excepting  vacations  and  the  times  they  were  on  the 
circuits.  The  picture  of  the  court-room  is  the  best  attainable,  the  per 
sons  as  seen  in  it  are  caricatures. 


30  THOMAS   DUDLEY  [CH.  m 

William  Russell ;  and  the  great  democratic  hero  and  patriot, 
Algernon  Sidney  ? 

The  Temple  Church,  completed  in  1185,  with  its  nine 
monuments  of  Templars  of  the  twelfth  and  thirteenth  cen 
turies  ;  and  the  monument  of  Robert  de  Ross,  one  of  the 
barons  to  whom  England  owes  Magna  Charta,  is  also  mem 
orable  in  the  annals  of  London  and  of  the  nation,  and,  de 
scending  from  hoary  antiquity,  has  long  survived  destruction 
and  decay.  The  same  is  true  of  several  old  churches  and 
buildings  in  the  city. 

But  Father  Thames  is  older  than  these,  yet  with  less 
vestige  of  age,  upon  whose  banks  Dudley  wandered  in  the 
morning,  at  evening,  or  floated  often  upon  its  tide.  Its 
waters  were  then  more  limpid,  its  shores  more  green,  but  it 
still  keeps  its  youth  and  its  identity.  How  often  at  West 
minster,  at  Temple  Gardens,  at  Richmond  Hill,  Coopers 
Hill,  or  at  Windsor,  he  visited  its  winding  shores ! 

Dudley  viewed  these  historic  piles,  sacred  temples,  and 
this  majestic  river  as  we  do;  association  with  them  reminds 
us  of  him ;  he  regarded  them  with  the  same  admiration  for 
Englishmen,  and  for  their  achievements  in  the  world,  which 
now  kindles  the  enthusiasm  of  visitors  from  every  zone  who 
cherish  a  sincere  affection  for  the  land  of  their  fathers. 


CHAPTER   IV 

DUDLEY  had  in  1616,  in  which  year  his  benefactor  and 
friend  Judge  Nicolls  died,  reached  the  age  of  forty  years, 
and  was  destined  to  remain  in  England  fourteen  more  years, 
full  of  service  and  experience,  before  he  led  the  great  emi 
gration  to  America. 

He  was  during  most  of  this  time  the  steward  of  Theophilus 
Clinton,  the  fourth  Earl  of  Lincoln,  at  or  near  Sempringham, 
in  Lincolnshire.  Here  his  duties  were  varied,  including 
the  management  of  a  large  number  of  estates,  the  collec 
tion  of  rents  and  other  incomes. 

This  was  an  eventful  period  in  English  history.  Dudley 
was  at  Sempringham,  in  the  midst  of  the  most  congenial 
religious  and  political  associations.  His  mother's  family  is 
said,  as  we  have  noticed,  to  have  inclined  towards  the  Puri 
tans.  Judge  Nicolls,  who  had  no  doubt  influenced,  as  greatly 
as  any  one,  his  views  and  character,  was  in  sympathy  with 
the  Puritans ;  and  the  household  of  the  fourth  Earl  of  Lin 
coln  was  the  very  hotbed  of  Puritanism  and  of  resistance 
to  kingly  prerogative.  Cambridge  University  was  near  by, 
at  which  the  most  advanced  and  revolutionary  thought  and 
doctrines  were  welcomed  and  disseminated  broadcast ;  while 
at  Boston  and  in  all  the  surrounding  towns  were  to  be  found 
the  most  learned  and  able  Puritan  ministers,  busily  engaged  in 
stirring  the  hearts  of  the  people  with  political  and  religious 
principles  which  could  only  vindicate  themselves  against 
the  tyranny  of  the  Stuarts  by  a  merciless  civil  war.  "  By 
the  ministry  of  eminent  scholars,"  Mather  informs  us,  "  as 
likewise  of  Mr.  Hildersham,  a  man  famously  known  all  Eng 
land  over  by  his  writings,  it  pleased  the  Almighty  to  season 
this  Mr.  Dudley's  heart  with  the  saving  knowledge  of  the 


32  THOMAS   DUDLEY  [CH.  iv 

truth,  so  as  ever  after  he  became  a  serious  Christian,  a  great 
lover  of  religion,  and  follower  of  those  ministers  that  either 
preached,  professed,  or  practiced  it.  And  those  ministers 
before  named,  of  whom  he  was  a  constant  hearer,  being  such 
as  were  then  called  Puritans  or  Nonconformists,  Mr.  Dudley 
was  himself  also  moulded  into  the  knowledge  and  persuasion 
of  that  way,  so  as  he  became  a  zealous  asserter  thereof,  but 
yet  so  as  they  were  only  sober,  orthodox  divines  and  Chris 
tians,  that  he  chose  always  to  consort  himself  with  ;  for  there 
was  no  man  that  more  hated  fanatics  and  wild  opinionists  than 
he  did,  notwithstanding  he  was  so  strenuous  an  oppugner  of 
conformity  and  the  ceremonies  of  the  Church  of  England."1 
Mather  says  also  that  "  Mr.  Dudley  began  to  be  well  known 
in  those  places  where  his  abode  was,  and  by  being  a  follower 
of  Mr.  Dod,  he  came  into  the  knowledge  of  the  Lord  Say 
and  Lord  Compton,  and  other  persons  of  quality,  by  whose 
means  he  was  afterwards  commended  to  the  service  of  the 
Earl  of  Lincoln,  who  was  then  a  young  man  and  newly  come 
into  the  possession  of  that  earldom,  with  the  lands  and 
hereditaments  that  belonged  thereunto."  2  Since  Dudley 
had  long  been  the  page  and  attendant  of  Lord  Compton,  it 
does  not  seem  probable  that  he  stood  in  need  of  commenda 
tion  from  Mr.  Dod,  but  Mather  never  neglects  an  opportu 
nity  of  exalting  the  importance  of  ministers. 

It  seems,  as  we  have  already  said,  to  be  of  the  first  signifi 
cance,  in  our  examination  of  the  life  and  character  of  Dudley, 
to  enter  as  much  as  we  can  into  a  knowledge  of  the  people 
who  were  nearest  to  him.  If  we  find  them  intelligent  and 
at  the  head  of  advanced  thought  in  the  kindred  subjects  of 
religion  and  of  politics,  and  that  their  social  life  was  the  best 
their  age  afforded,  these  discoveries  will  go  far  in  determin 
ing  Dudley's  real  character.  We  strive,  therefore,  to  give 
to  these  persons  their  true  historic  proportions,  and  then  to 
measure  him  by  them  as  standards  ;  to  view  him  and  his 
character  and  qualities  as  they  viewed  them,  to  discover  to 
what  extent  and  in  what  matters  they  reposed  unwavering 
1  Proc.  Mass.  Hist.  Soc.,  1870,  209.  2  Ib.,  211. 


1616-28]  FOURTH   EARL  OF   LINCOLN  33 

confidence  in  him ;  and  thus,  assisted  by  light  reflected 
from  them,  we  hope  to  present  him  as  he  was.  We  must 
also  carefully  and  thoughtfully  note  the  scenery  and  associa 
tions  of  his  daily  life,  and,  so  far  as  possible,  the  influence 
upon  him  of  architecture,  noble  trees,  wide  moors,  the  fens, 
and  sea.  The  Earl  of  Lincoln  and  his  home  of  Sempring- 
ham  are  of  preeminent  importance,  therefore,  at  this  era  in 
the  life  of  Dudley. 

We  learn  from  "  Collins's  Peerage  "  that  the  family  of  the 
Earl  of  Lincoln  came  in  with  William  the  Conqueror.  It 
has  recently  been  said  of  it,  that  "  for  seven  hundred  years 
it  has  poured  out  a  scarcely  intermitted  succession  of  men 
who  have  spent  their  lives  in  the  furtherance  of  England's 
greatness  and  policy.  If  it  has  never  had  a  genius,  it  has 
also  never  produced  a  traitor ;  and  if  it  has  never  risen  ta 
the  lofty  position  of  one  or  two  of  its  rivals,  it  has  not  in  its 
annals  chapters  which  it  would  give  estates  to  conceal."  L 

The  fourth  Earl  came  to  his  title  on  the  death  of  his  fa 
ther,  January  15,  1618-19,  at  the  age  of  nineteen,  having 
been  made  a  Knight  of  the  Bath,  along  with  Prince  Charles 
(afterwards  Charles  I.),  in  1616.  "  He  was  a  warm  patriot 
on  the  parliament's  side  in  the  civil  war,  but,  after  the  cap 
tivity  of  the  king,  being  inclined  to  moderation,  was  impris 
oned  and  accused  of  treason  by  the  usurping  power  of  the 
army,  which  subverted,  under  Cromwell's  direction,  all  the 
principles  of  the  Constitution."  2 

He  thus  fell  at  this  time  into  the  hands  of  the  army,  and 
was  with  other  Presbyterian  peers  impeached  by  the  Com 
mons,  on  the  eighth  day  of  September,  164.7.  The  impeach 
ment  was,  however,  allowed  to  drop.  He  took  no  prominent 
part  in  the  time  of  the  Commonwealth,  acquiescing  in  it. 
"He  performed  the  office  of  carver  at  the  coronation  of 
Charles  II."  3 

1  Sanford  and  Townsend's  Great  Governing  Families  of  England, 
212. 

2  Winthrop,  i.  34,  Savage's  note. 

8  Burke's  Peerage,  Newcastle  Family,  1024. 


34  THOMAS   DUDLEY  [CH.  iv 

The  first  notable  act  of  which  we  have  a  record  in  the 
life  of  the  Earl  of  Lincoln  was  that  "  he  became  colonel  of 
a  regiment  of  foot  and  two  troops  of  horse,  which  were  a 
part  of  12,000  men  raised  by  Count  Mansfeld  in  England 
to  assist  the  Palatine  in  the  22d  of  James  I.  ;  but  neither 
France,  Holland,  nor  Brabant  allowing  the  troops  to  land  on 
their  shores,  they  were  decimated  by  pestilence,  and  scarce 
one  half  reached  Germany.  His  share  in  this  expedition 
shows  the  political  leanings  of  the  Earl  of  Lincoln,  the  Puri 
tans  being  deeply  interested  in  the  Palatine's  enterprise;  but 
these  were  displayed  more  decidedly  at  the  rupture  between 
the  king  and  parliament,  when  he  espoused  warmly  the 
Puritan  side,  attaching  himself  to  the  Presbyterian  party."  l 

Mather  informs  us  that  "  towards  the  latter  end  of  King 
James  his  reign,  when  there  was  a  press  for  soldiers  to  go 
over  into  Germany  with  Count  Mansfeld,  for  the  recovery  of 
the  Palatinate ;  when  the  matter  was  first  motioned,  the  Earl 
of  Lincoln,  who  was  zealously  affected  toward  the  Protestant 
interest,  was  strongly  inclined  to  have  gone  over  with  the 
said  earl  or  count,  and  should  have  been  a  colonel  in  the 
expedition,  yet  resolving  not  to  go  without  Mr.  Dudley's 
advice  and  company ;  and  therefore  he  sent  down  to  Boston, 
in  Lincolnshire,  where  Mr.  Dudley  then  sojourned,  to  come 
forthwith  to  London,  to  order  matters  for  this  enterprise, 
and  to  be  ready  to  accompany  him  therein.  Mr.  Dudley 
knew  not  how  to  refuse  to  wait  upon  his  lordship,  yet  thought 
it  best,  as  well  for  himself  as  for  the  earl,  to  take  the  best 
counsel  he  could,  in  a  concern  of  so  high  a  nature,  not  being 
unmindful  of  what  Solomon  said,  'with  good  advice  make 
war/  Therefore  he  resolved  with  himself,  in  his  passing  up 
to  London,  to  take  Cambridge  in  his  way,  that  he  might 
advise  with  Dr.  Preston  about  the  design,  who  was  a  great 
statesman  as  well  as  a  great  divine,  at  least  was  conceived 
very  well  to  understand  the  intrigues  of  the  state  in  that 
juncture ;  and  he  altogether  dissuaded  Mr.  Dudley,  or  the 

1  Sanford  and  Townsend's  Great  Governing  Families  of  England, 
208. 


1616-28]    DUDLEY  AND   THE   EARL  OF   LINCOLN  35 

earl,  from  having  anything  to  do  in  that  expedition,  laying 
before  them  the  grounds  of  his  apprehensions  on  which  he 
foresaw  the  sad  event  of  the  whole,  as  did  really  soon  after 
come  to  pass.  Dr.  Preston,  by  reason  of  his  frequent  inter 
course  with  the  Earl  of  Lincoln's  family,  was  free  to  discover 
to  Mr.  Dudley  all  that  he  knew,  and  he  improved  it  thor 
oughly  to  take  off  the  earl's  mind  from  the  enterprise."  l 

The  next  year,  1626,  the  earl  appeared  in  resistance  to 
the  forced  loan  demanded  by  Charles  L,  who,  when  he  found 
that  his  subjects  were  averse  to  giving  him  money,  concluded 
that  he  would  make  them  lend  instead,  the  result  being  the 
same,  no  payment  being  intended  in  either  case.2 

Dean  Dudley  says  :  "  But  the  Earl  of  Lincoln's  opposition 
to  the  loan  was  most  conspicuous.  According  to  his  wont, 
he  quickly  took  action  in  the  matter,  and  probably  by  the 
aid  of  his  former  steward  and  counselor,  Mr.  Thomas  Dud 
ley,  prepared  and  published  an  abridgment  of  the  English 
statutes  for  free  distribution.  The  fact  of  Dudley's  having 
a  hand  in  this  proceeding,  if  not,  indeed,  being  the  chief  ad 
viser  of  it,  is  sufficiently  evident  from  many  circumstances, 
says  the  historian.  .  .  .  The  king  was  not  unacquainted 
with  this  proceeding  of  the  earl,  who  had  distributed  his 

1  Life  of  Thomas  Dudley,  by  Mather,  Proc.  Mass.  Hist.  Soc.,  1870, 
214,  215. 

2  It  is  relatedfin  the  diary  of  Walter  Yonge,  from  1604  to  1628,  that 
"  December,  1626,  the  king  having  determined  heretofore  to  demand 
of  all  his  Subjects  so  much  money  by  way  of  loan  as  they  are  set  in 
subsidy,  viz.,  he  that 's  set  at  twenty  pounds  in  subsidy  to  lend  unto 
the  king  twenty  pounds,  the  judges  were  urged  to  subscribe.     They 
paid  their  money,  but  refused  to  subscribe  the  same  as  a  legal  course ; 
for  which  Sir  Randall  Crew,  chief  justice  of  England,  had  his  patent 
taken  from  him,  and  he  was  displaced,  Ter.  Michael.  1626,  anno  2 
Caroli.     The  privy  council  subscribed  ;  the  lords  and  peers,  subscribed, 
all  except  fourteen,  whereof  six  were  earls,  viz.,  Earl  of  Essex,  Earl  of 
Warwick,  Earl  of  Clare,  Earl  of  Huntington,  Earl  of  Lincoln,  and  the 
Earl  of  Bolingbroke,  being  Lord  St.  John."    (Diary  of  Walter  Yonge, 
98;  The  John  Forster's  Debates  on  the   Grand  Remonstrance,  220, 
note  i.)    The  earl  continued  steadfast  in  this  cause.     (John  Forster's 
Arrest  of  the  Five  Members,  37,  note,  in  the  year  1642.) 


36  THOMAS   DUDLEY  [CH.  iv 

book  all  over  his  county  at  least,  if  not  over  the  whole 
realm ;  and  the  royal  power  was  rigorously  used  to  suppress 
the  abridgment,  the  great  object  of  the  king's  resentment. 
.  .  .  Theophilus  was  proceeded  against  in  the  Star  Chamber, 
and  was  soon  made  a  close  prisoner  in  the  Tower,  where  he 
was  kept  in  custody  for  some  years."  l 

The  cherished  seat  of  the  Earl  of  Lincoln  at  this  time,  as 
we  have  already  intimated,  was  the  ancient,  historic  Sem- 
pringham.  He  possessed  other  estates,  some  of  which  will 
be  named  hereafter,  because  Dudley  is  supposed  to  have 
had  the  immediate  care  of  them.  The  manor  of  Sempring- 
ham  is  distant  about  three  miles  southeast  from  Folking- 
ham.  The  village  of  Sempringham  is  noted  in  the  monastic 
annals  of  England  as  the  birthplace  of  St.  Gilbert  de  Sem 
pringham,  who  founded  a  novel  religious  order,  indeed  the 
only  English  order,  and  settled  it  at  his  native  place. 

St.  Gilbert  lived  to  be  106  years  old,  and  to  see  thirteen 
monasteries  erected,  in  which  were  700  men  and  1300 
women.  So  noted  did  the  order  of  the  Gilbertines  become 
that',  in  the  reign  of  Edward  L,  Vincilian,  daughter  of  Llew 
ellyn,  King  of  Wales,  was  a  nun  of  the  convent  of  Sempring 
ham.2 

In  Gilbert's  time  the  land  to  the  east  of  Sempringham  was 

1  History  of  Dudley  Family,  i.  57,  58. 

2  St.  Gilbert  was  lord  of  the  manor  of  Sempringham  and  rector  of 
the  parish.     The  Gilbertine  was  the  only  purely  English  order  ever 
established.     Sempringham    Priory  was  always  considered  the  chief 
house  of  the  order,  and  was  the  place  in  which  all  their  grand  chapters 
were  held.     It  grew  and  flourished  for  nearly  four  hundred  years. 

When  Thomas  a  Becket  fled  from  the  anger  of  Henry  II.,  in  1164, 
he  was  accompanied  by  two  monks  of  Sempringham,  and  was  received 
(in  disguise)  at  various  Gilbertine  houses,  for  which  acts  St.  Gilbert  was 
summoned  to  appear  at  Westminster  for  high  treason.  He  was,  how 
ever,  shortly  released  and  returned  to  Sempringham. 

King  Henry  afterwards  entertained  an  almost  superstitious  reverence 
for  Gilbert.  He  attributed  to  his  prayers  the  prosperity  of  his  kingdom 
and  his  general  success.  And  after  Gilbert's  death  the  king  exclaimed, 
"  Verily  I  knew  that  he  was  passed  away,  and  my  misfortunes  have 
found  me  out  now  that  he  is  no  longer  present." 


SIDE   DOOR,   SAINT  ANDREW'S   CHl'RCH 


1616-28]  SEMPRINGHAM  37 

one  vast,  dismal,  dreary,  dangerous  swamp  which  extended 
northward  to  Lincoln,  eastward  to  the  sea,  and  southward  to 
Spalding,  Crowland,  Peterborough,  and  Ely.  But  through 
the  skill  and  energy  of  the  inmates  of  the  monasteries  sit 
uated  in  these  fens,  and  their  dependents,  supplemented  by 
the  superior  engineering  ability  of  later  days,  these  fenny 
swamps  have  become  some  of  the  most  fertile  land  in  the 
kingdom.  It  was  in  these  swamps  that  the  last  stand  of 
the  Saxon  against  the  Norman  took  place  under  Here  ward, 
Lord  of  Bourne.1 

Every  semblance  of  a  house  has  long  since  vanished.  The 
old  Church  of  St.  Andrew's,  however,  remains  among  the 
graves  of  the  monks  and  the  nuns,  and  the  desolation  of 
their  home,  preserving  at  least  some  of  the  features  upon 
which  they  gazed. 

Through  that  magnificent  doorway  which  is  yet  in  the 
south  side,  almost  as  perfect  as  when  it  left  the  workman's 
hand,  many  a  time  has  passed  the  good  St.  Gilbert  at  the 
head  of  his  chapter ;  and  those  fine  old  fir  doors,  so  splen 
didly  ornamented  with  iron  scrolls,  have  closed  upon  them 
while  they  worshiped  or  deliberated  upon  the  business  of 
their  order.  How  often,  also,  during  many  years  they  have 
closed  upon  the  noble  earls  of  Lincoln,  upon  Isaac  Johnson 
and  Lady  Arbella,  upon  Governor  Thomas  Dudley  and  his 
family ! 

1  Charles  Kingsley's  Hereward,  the  Last  of  the  English;  Hist,  of 
the  County  of 'Lincoln,  ii.  285;  Architectural  Reports,  ii.  138,  also  xi. 
ii  and  xiv.  179. 

At  the  dissolution  of  the  monasteries  the  inmates  of  Sempringham 
all  dispersed,  and  their  house  was  given  by  Henry  VI 1 1.  to  Edward, 
Lord  Clinton,  who  built  a  beautiful  mansion  out  of  its  ruins.  Lord 
Clinton  was  greatly  distinguished  as  admiral  of  the  fleet  at  the  victory 
of  Musselburgh,  on  the  coast  of  Scotland,  in  1547.  He  was  created 
Lord  High  Admiral  in  June,  1551,  and  the  first  Earl  of  Lincoln  in 
May,  1572.  He  married  Elizabeth,  daughter  of  Gerald,  Earl  of  Kil- 
dare,  the  far-famed  Geraldine,  the  heroine  of  the  verses  of  Thomas 
Howard,  the  accomplished  Earl  of  Surrey.  (Chambers's  Ency.  of  Eng. 
Lit.,  i.  46.) 


38  THOMAS   DUDLEY  [CH.  iv 

There  is  not  a  road  within  two  or  three  fields  of  the 
church,  and  the  glory  of  Sempringham  long  ago  departed. 
It  is  now  in  the  midst  of  a  country  of  green  fields,  tree- 
lined  hedgerows,  with  here  and  there,  above  the  level  land 
scape  of  redeemed  fenlands,  the  tower  of  one  of  those  grand 
Norman  churches  for  which  the  county  is  famous,  each 
worthy  to  be  the  cathedral  of  a  diocese,  and  each  with  its 
red-tiled  hamlet  nestling  near  to  it,  undoubtedly  little  altered 
in  itself  or  its  surrroundings  for  five  hundred  years. 

The  Sempringham  Church  of  St.  Andrew's  was  entered 
by  Dudley,  when,  according  to  Mather,  he  said,  "Now  I 
must  return  to  the  church  to  hear  Dr.  Preston,"  who  then 
preached  before  the  Earl  of  Lincoln.1 

We  have  already  noticed  what  influence  Dr.  Preston  had, 
both  with  the  Earl  of  Lincoln  and  with  Dudley,  in  the  matter 
of  the  proposed  expedition  to  the  Palatinate.  Here  we  are 
able  to  judge  of  them  by  their  relations  with  so  eminent  a 
man,  and  from  their  wisdom  in  seeking  his  learned  counsel. 
It  adds  to  our  high  opinion  of  both  the  Earl  of  Lincoln  and 
of  Mr.  Dudley,  that  they  were  satisfied  with  nothing  inferior 
to  the  opinions  of  the  greatest  and  best  persons  of  their  pe 
riod,  for  this  at  once  reveals  their  own  quality  of  character. 
It  has  been  said  by  some  one  that  we  cannot  appreciate  with 
enthusiasm  a  great  work  of  literature  or  of  art  unless  we 
have  in  ourselves  the  same  qualities  in  a  degree  which  the 
composer  possessed.  It  is  quite  evident  that  our  estimate 
of  great  qualities  in  men  depends  upon  what  we  are. 

Dr.  Preston,  D.  D.,  was  a  fellow  of  Queens  College,  Cam 
bridge  ;  later  chaplain  to  Prince  Charles,  Master  of  Emanuel 
College.  And  here  he  was  preaching  in  St.  Andrew's  Church 
(which,  standing  alone,  still  overlooks  the  fens)  the  doc 
trines  and  heresy  of  John  Calvin  over  the  sacred  ashes  of  St. 
Gilbert,  while  the  same  ancient  vaulted  roof,  the  identical 
antique  arches  and  Norman  pillars,  reverberate  his  words 
and  accents  as  freely  as  when,  centuries  before,  they  had 
resounded  the  voice  of  him  who  sleeps  between  the  altars  of 
1  Proc.  Mass.  Hist.  Soc.,  1870,  213. 


1616-28]    ESTATES    OF   THE   EARL   OF   LINCOLN  39 

the  Virgin  and  St.  Andrew,  at  the  east  end  of  the  church, 
undisturbed  by  mutations  of  doctrine  and  faith. 

But  the  change  was  broad  and  unconfined  throughout  the 
land.  Thomas  Carlyle  tells  us  that  "  already  (in  1624)  either 
in  conscious  act  or  in  clear  tendency,  the  far  greater  part  of 
the  serious  Thought  and  Manhood  of  England  had  declared 
itself  Puritan."  l 

The  Nonconformists  were  certainly  in  the  ascendency  in 
Lincolnshire  and  the  neighboring  counties.  The  thralldom 
in  which  the  minds  and  hearts  of  the  masses  had  been  held 
for  centuries  was  being  dissolved  by  the  swift  and  perpetual 
diffusion  of  a  new  light  into  souls  aroused  by  long-suffering 
to  welcome  and  use  it. 

It  would  be  of  great  service  to  us  if  we  knew  the  extent  of 
the  property  and  estates  which  were  under  the  care  of  Dud 
ley  as  steward  of  the  Earl  of  Lincoln.  We  fortunately  do 
know  the  names  of  the  estates  which  descended  with  the 
title  to  the  earl's  father,  the  third  Earl  of  Lincoln,  and  they 
were  quite  likely  included  under  the  stewardship  of  Dudley.2 

Mather  has  left  to  us  a  very  brief  statement  of  the  dif 
ficulties  which  Dudley  encountered  as  steward  of  the  Earl  of 
Lincoln,  and  they  seem  to  have  been  great,  and  to  have  been 
heroically  struggled  with,  and  successfully  overcome,  by  him. 

Mather's  statement  is  that  "  the  grandfather  of  this  present 

1  Carlyle's  Cromwell's  Letters  and  Speeches,  i.  48 ;  Froude's  Bun- 
yan,  chap.  ii. 

2  They  were  "the  manor  of  Aslackby  and  Temple  Aslackby,  the 
castle  and  manor  of  Tattershall,  the  house  and  site  of  the  monastery  of 
Sempringham,  with  the  manor  of  Sempringham  and  the  advowson  of 
the  church,  the  manor  of  BSllingborough,  rectory  of  the  church,  and 
advowson  of  the  vicarage,  the  manors  of  East  and  West  Claughton, 
the  honor,  castle,  and  manor  of  Folkingham,  and  manor  of  Thirking- 
ham,  and  advowson  of  the  churches,  the  manors  of  Thorp  and  Kirby 
Byrne,  Roughton,  Marton-juxta-Thornton,  Conisby,  Billingay,  Walcott- 
juxta-Billingay,  Burthorp,  and  Kirksted,  alias  Crested."    (Sanford  and 
Townsend's  Great  Governing  Families  of  England,  207,  208.) 

Dean  Dudley  visited  the  manor  of  Tattershall  in  1850,  and  obtained 
valuable  items  from  the  old  parish  register,  but  nothing  concerning 
Dudley  or  his  family.  (History  of  Dudley  Family,  i.  53,  57.) 


40  THOMAS   DUDLEY  [CH.  iv 

earl  was  called  Henry,  who,  being  a  bad  husband,"  that  is 
to  say,  a  feeble  economist,  "  had  left  his  heirs  under  great 
entanglements,  and  his  son,  named  Thomas,  had  never  been 
able  to  wind  out  of  that  labyrinth  of  debts  contracted  by  his 
father,  so  that  all  the  difficulties  were  now  devolved  upon 
Theophilus,  the  grandchild,  who  was  persuaded  therefore  to 
entertain  Dudley  as  his  steward  to  manage  his  whole  estate, 
who,  though  it  were  so  involved  with  many  great  debts, 
amounting  to  near  twenty  thousand  pounds,  yet  by  his  pru 
dent,  careful,  and  faithful  management  of  the  demesnes  of 
that  family,  he  in  a  few  years  found  means  to  discharge  all 
those  great  debts,  wherein  the  young  earl  was  so  engulfed 
that  he  saw  little  hope  of  ever  wading  through  them  all. 
But  with  God's  blessing  on  Mr.  Dudley's  pains  and  industry, 
he  was  soon  freed  of  them." 1 

Mather  continues  on  p.  214  :  "The  earl,  finding  him  so  to 
be,  would  never,  after  his  acquaintance  with  him,  do  any 
business  of  moment  without  Mr.  Dudley's  counsel  of  advice." 

Dudley  came  to  America  in  1630,  and  the  earl  lived  thirty- 
seven  years  after  that  without  much,  if  any,  of  his  counsel 
or  advice.  These  words  of  Mather  are  nevertheless  very 
significant.  They  present  Dudley  in  his  true  character ; 
they  show  plainly  the  estimation  in  which  he  was  then  held 
by  the  Earl  of  Lincoln,  who  had  tried  and  proved  him  so 
thoroughly  as  to  leave  no  doubt  of  his  integrity  and  ability. 
He  was  then,  as  he  was  always  and  everywhere  subsequently, 
a  "  trusty  pillar,"  a  firm  and  reliable  support  and  guide,  in 
business,  in  church,  and  in  state. 

How  truly  Dudley  was  a  man  directed  by  conscience  and 
guided  by  conviction  in  the  ordinary  affairs  of  life,  as  well  as 
in  greater  matters  of  state  later  in  his  career,  is  shown  in  the 
following  extract  from  Mather : z  "  Some  of  those  that  over 
looked  his  [Dudley's]  manuscripts  found  such  an  expression 
as  this,  not  long  after  he  left  the  earl's  family :  *  I  found  the 
estate  of  the  Earl  of  Lincoln  so  much  and  so  much  in  debt, 
which  I  have  discharged,  and  have  raised  the  rents  so  many 
1  Proc.  Mass.  Hist.  Soc.,  1870,  212.  2  Ib.,  214. 


SAINT  ANDREW'S   CHURCH,  AT   SEMPRINGHAM,  LINCOLNSHIRE 


1616-28]  DUDLEY  AS   STEWARD  41 

hundreds  per  annum.  God  will,  I  trust,  bless  me  and  mine 
in  such  a  manner  as  Nehemiah  sometime  did,  appealing  unto 
the  judgment  of  God,  that  he  knew  the  hearts  of  all  men, 
that  he  had  walked  in  the  integrity  of  his  heart  before  God, 
to  the  full  discharge  of  the  duty  of  his  place.' ' 

We  know  nothing  of  the  pecuniary  resources  of  the  earl 
in  the  hands  of  Dudley,  aside  from  the  estates  above  men 
tioned,  with  which  he  achieved  this  great  success.  We  are 
not  instructed  as  to  the  details  of  the  claims,  or  how  they 
were  liquidated.  We  do  know  that  others  tried  to  free  the 
estates  from  debt,  and  failed  to  do  it.  We  know  that  the 
debts  amounted  to  about  $100,000,  which  required  a  net 
profit  every  year  of  more  than  $10,000  above  and  beyond 
payments  of  interest,  household  and  other  expenses,  to  attain 
to  the  crowning  achievement  in  this  management.  We  learn 
also  that  in  this  time  he  not  only  discharged  these  mountains 
of  debt,  but  that  he  did  greater  things,  for  he  raised  the  rents 
many  hundreds  of  pounds  per  annum,  and  sent  the  earl  and 
his  estates  on  their  way  rejoicing  in  prosperity,  and  yet  "he 
had  all  the  time  walked  in  the  integrity  of  his  heart  before 
God."  If  Dudley  had  never  accomplished  more  than  this, 
he  would  have  been  entitled  to  a  very  worthy  place  among 
business  men.  Our  surest  measure  of  his  effort  is  found  in 
the  opinions  of  his  contemporaries.  The  most  trustworthy 
light  comes  to  us  from  their  judgment,  shown  both  in  their 
words  and  actions.  They  surely  accounted  his  success  to 
be  very  extraordinary.  Perhaps  one  of  the  most  marvelous 
features  in  it,  after  all,  was  that  he  acquired  such  an  ascend 
ency  over  the  fourth  Earl  of  Lincoln  that  he  allowed  him  to 
limit  and  restrain  his  expenditures  within  the  lines  of  pru 
dence,  and  taught  him  the  secret  of  self-restraint,  self-sacri 
fice,  and  economy,  and  in  it  and  through  it  all  retained  the 
earl's  abiding  confidence  in  his  ability  and  integrity,  together 
with  the  highest  esteem  for  the  excellent  qualities  of  his 
character,  and  a  due  and  constant  deference  to  him  and  his 
opinions  until  his  departure  across  the  Atlantic. 

Dudley  was  intrusted  even,  as  we  have  already  observed, 


42  THOMAS   DUDLEY  [CH.  iv 

with  the  delicate  and  diplomatic  service  of  "procuring  a 
match  between  the  daughter  of  the  Lord  Say  and  this  Theo- 
philus,  Earl  of  Lincoln,  who  was  so  wise,  virtuous,  and  every 
way  so  an  accomplished  lady,  that  she  proved  a  great  bless 
ing  to  the  whole  family."  1  It  is  by  no  means  certain  whether 
it  was  the  earl  or  the  steward  who  first  discovered  the  per 
fections  of  Lady  Bridget,  Countess  of  Lincoln,  but  the  over 
ture  was  made  by  the  steward,  who  was  excluded  from  the 
fortune  of  John  Alden  in  "  The  Courtship  of  Miles  Standish." 
It  is  an  impressive  episode  in  history  that  Dudley,  long 
years  after  this  event,  conferred  enduring  immortality  upon 
the  countess  by  writing  to  her  a  letter,  from  his  desolate  and 
comfortless  home  in  this  American  wilderness,  which  will 
be  read  thoughtfully,  tenderly,  and  gratefully  by  citizens  of 
the  United  States  forever,  while  the  other  brilliant  women, 
her  companions  in  society,  are  forgotten,  —  a  letter  which 
Young  declares  to  be  "  the  most  interesting  as  well  as  au 
thentic  document  in  our  early  annals  ; "  3  while  Drake  says, 
in  the  "History  and  Antiquities  of  Boston:"  "With  this 
paragraph  ends  the  invaluable  letter  of  Dudley.  No  docu 
ment  in  the  annals  of  Boston  will  compare  in  importance 
with  it,  and  no  one  can  successfully  study  this  period  of  its 
history  without  it."  3 

1  Mather,  Proc.  Mass.  Hist.  Soc.,  1870,  212. 
s  Chron.,  340.  8  Page  122,  note. 


CHAPTER  V 

SEMPRINGHAM  had  a  very  close  and  intimate  connection 
with  the  great  emigration  to  America  in  1630,  which,  al 
though  not  the  first,  was  one  of  the  most  important.  We 
have,  therefore,  most  excellent  reason  to  cherish  the  home 
of  St.  Gilbert  as  one  of  those  memorable  cradles  in  our  old 
English  home  where  a  great  undertaking  was  thought  out, 
nurtured,  and  matured  in  the  minds  of  the  founders  of  the 
Massachusetts  Colony,  and  whence  those  seminal  ideas  of 
liberty  and  equality  taught  at  Geneva  and  in  the  Nether 
lands,  and  now  diffused  throughout  England,  took  their 
departure  for  this  continent,  to  become  vital  and  fundamen 
tal  in  the  Constitution  and  laws  of  the  greatest  and  most 
enlightened  nation  which  exists. 

The  Earl  of  Lincoln  himself,  as  we  have  observed,  had 
resisted  forced  loans  and  the  tyranny  of  Charles  I.  He 
had  suffered  loss  of  property  and  caste ;  he  had  endured  im 
peachments  and  imprisonment  in  the  Tower,  and  later  the 
insolence  of  a  despotic  Parliament.  And  Sempringham,  like 
the  cave  of  Adullam,  became  a  resort  for  those  who  dared 
to  think  and  speak  the  words  of  freedom,  of  soberness,  and 
reason. 

Roger  Williams,  the  founder  of  Rhode  Island,  wended  his 
way  thither.  He  says  in  his  "Bloudy  Tenent  yet  more 
Bloudy : "  "  Master  Cotton  may  call  to  mind,  that  the  dis 
cusser  [Roger  Williams]  riding  with  himself  [viz.,  with  John 
Cotton]  and  one  other  of  precious  memory,  Master  Hooker, 
to  and  from  Sempringham,  presented  his  arguments  from 
Scripture,  why  he  durst  not  join  with  them  in  their  use  of 
Common  Prayer."  l  We  can  easily  divine  the  purpose  of 
1  Pub.  Narr.  Club,  iv.  65. 


44  THOMAS   DUDLEY  [CH.  v 

this  pilgrimage  to  Sempringham.  Dudley,  in  his  letter  to 
the  Countess  of  Lincoln,  has  furnished  a  motive  for  this  and 
of  all  similar  visits  by  other  New  England  planters. 

We  like  to  dwell  upon  the  quaint  picture  of  these  three 
great  historic  New  England  worthies,  the  founders  of  almost 
as  many  states,  riding  together  across  the  plains  and  fens  of 
Lincolnshire,  disagreeing  as  they  did,  in  all  their  subsequent 
lives,  about  doctrine  and  the  meaning  of  Scripture.  And, 
strange  to  say,  no  man  can  assure  us  whence  they  came  to 
Sempringham  and  whither  they  went  when  they  departed. 
It  is  fortunately  unimportant. 

Dudley  says  in  his  letter  to  the  Countess  of  Lincoln,  not 
for  her  information,  because  she  knew  it  already,  but  for  the 
instruction  of  emigrants :  "  Touching  the  Plantation  which 
we  here  have  begun,  it  fell  out  thus.  About  the  year  1627, 
some  friends,  being  together  in  Lincolnshire,  fell  into  dis 
course  about  New  England,  and  the  planting  of  the  Gospel 
there ;  and  after  some  deliberation  we  imparted  our  reasons, 
by  letters  and  messages,  to  some  in  London  and  the  west 
country,  where  it  was  likewise  deliberately  thought  upon, 
and  at  length  with  often  negotiation  so  ripened,  that  in  the 
year  1628  we  procured  a  patent."  1 

Governor  John  Winthrop,  "  the  father  of  Massachusetts," 
was  drawn  to  Sempringham  as  well  as  the  other  planters. 
The  following  letter  from  him  is  excellent  and  to  the 
point :  — 

"July  28:  1629.  My  Bro  :  Downing  &  myselfe  ridinge 
into  Lincolnshire  by  Ely,  my  horse  fell  under  me  in  a  bogge 
in  the  fennes,  so  as  I  was  allmost  to  the  waiste  in  water ; 
but  the  Lorde  preserved  me  from  further  danger.  Blessed 
be  his  name." 

The  Hon.  Robert  C.  Winthrop  remarks  that  this  letter 
indicates,  "  beyond  a  question,  that  Winthrop  and  Downing 
were  on  their  way  to  Sempringham  to  visit  Isaac  Johnson, 
and  consult  with  him  about  the  great  Massachusetts  enter 
prise.  There  is  a  letter,  from  Johnson  to  Downing,  found 
1  Young's  Chron.,  309. 


1625-30]      THE   MASSACHUSETTS    ENTERPRISE  45 

among  Winthrop's  papers,  dated  just  twenty  days  before, 
inviting  them  to  do  so."  l 

We  cannot  think,  upon  an  examination  of  Mr.  Johnson's 
letter,  that  they  made  the  journey  to  Sempringham  solely 
to  consult  with  him.  The  whole  household,  including  many 
members,  like  a  busy  hive,  was  thoughtfully  and  deeply 
pondering  immediate  emigration  to  America ;  each  one  who 
was  not  about  to  depart  was  full  of  solicitude  for  the  impend 
ing  fate  of  those  who  were.  They  were  studying  and  reflect 
ing  upon  the  loss  of  much  that  was  as  dear  to  them  as  life 
itself,  by  this  separation  from  the  home  of  their  childhood. 
They  were  thinking  of  perils  by  sea,  of  perils  in  the  wilder 
ness,  of  manifold  privations,  of  furious  wild  beasts,  of  un 
known  diseases,  of  merciless  savages  ;  all  of  these  dangers, 
and  many  others,  kept  them  anxious  and  perplexed  by  day, 
and  sleepless  by  night  And  still,  above  all  this  solicitude 
concerning  personal  safety  and  comfort,  the  thoughts  of  a 
land  of  freedom  to  worship  God,  a  country  where  a  new 
government  might  arise,  divested  of  the  worn-out,  cumber 
some  systems  descending  from  earlier  and  darker  ages,  took 
possession  of  their  souls,  and  made  them  anxious  and  restless 
to  be  on  their  journey  "  Westward,"  whither  "the  course  of 
empire  takes  its  way." 

How  great  the  interests  of  this  enterprise  were  in  this 
family  and  household  will  appear  if  we  carefully  note  the 
individuals  who  were  in  it,  and  the  parts  they  acted  in  the 
early  history  of  Massachusetts.  No  other  family  is  so  con 
spicuous. 

Mather  says  the  "  times  began  to  look  black  and  cloudy 
upon  the  Nonconformists,  of  which  Mr.  Dudley  was  one  to 
the  full."2  Isaac  Johnson,  the  brother-in-law  of  the  earl, 
gave  in  his  name  for  the  expedition  to  the  American  wilder- 

1  Life  and  Letters  of  John  Winthrop,  i.  304,  2d  ed. ;  Mass.  Hist. 
Coll.,  4th  series,  vi.  29.     This  was  probably  Emanuel  Downing,  who 
was  of  the  Inner  Temple,  and  married  a  sister  of  Governor  Winthrop. 
(Young's  Chron.,  97.) 

2  Proc.  Mass.  Hist.  Soc.,  1870,  216. 


46  THOMAS   DUDLEY  [CH.  v 

ness.  He  was  the  largest  financial  adventurer.  His  saintly 
wife,  the  beautiful  Lady  Arbella  Johnson,  whose  praises  have 
been  sung  during  two  and  one-half  centuries,  joined  him  to 
take  her  full  share  of  privations  and  sufferings  in  founding 
this  nation.  She  had  been  tenderly  reared  at  Sempringham, 
and  most  of  her  cherished  memories  of  childhood  and  youth 
clustered  about  it.  It  is  quite  possible  that  the  old  church 
which  remains  was  the  place  of  her  marriage ;  we  are  sure 
that  it  was  her  place  of  worship. 

Hubbard  says  that  "  she  came  from  a  paradise  of  plenty 
and  pleasure,  which  she  enjoyed  in  the  family  of  a  noble 
earldom,  into  a  wilderness  of  wants,"  and  that  "  she  took 
New  England  in  her  way  to  heaven."  She  arrived  in  Amer 
ica  in  June,  1630,  and  died  in  the  following  August,  and 
her  husband  survived  her  only  one  month. 

Lady  Susan  Humphrey  also  was  a  sister  of  the  Earl  of 
Lincoln.  She  must  have  left  her  native  land  with  deep  mis 
givings  in  1632,  following  with  a  forlorn  hope  her  sister 
Arbella  to  her  last  earthly  abode.  She  and  her  husband 
came  with  their  children.  Her  husband,  John  Humphrey, 
was  one  of  the  six  original  patentees  to  whom  the  grant  of 
Massachusetts  Bay  was  made  by  the  Council  of  Plymouth. 
He  was  the  first  deputy  governor  of  Massachusetts.  He 
was  also  an  original  patentee  of  the  Colony  of  Connecticut. 
They  returned  to  England  in  1641  with  a  dark  shadow  on 
their  lives  by  reason  of  a  cruel  misfortune  which  overtook 
their  little  daughters  in  America.1 

Lady  Frances  Gorges,  wife  of  John  Gorges,  was  another 
sister  of  the  Earl  of  Lincoln,  whose  husband  had  large 
landed  interests  in  New  England  even  prior  to  the  emigra 
tion  of  1630. 

The  eminent  William  Fiennes,  Lord  Saye  and  Sele, 
greatly  distinguished  in  the  Revolution,  was  connected  with 
this  family  by  marriage,  for  his  daughter  Bridget  was  the 
accomplished  Countess  of  Lincoln,  who  presided  at  Sem 
pringham  through  all  this  stormy  period  in  English  annals. 
1  Lewis  and  Newhall's  Hist,  of  Lynn,  152. 


INTERIOR  OF  SAINT  ANDREW'S  CHURCH 


1625-30]  CALVINISM  47 

He  was  a  large  proprietor  in  New  England  and  the  West 
Indies.  Saybrook  in  Connecticut  takes  a  part  of  its  name 
from  his  title.  He  intimated  to  the  government  of  Massa 
chusetts  that  he  would  come  there  to  reside  if  only  the 
hereditary  dignity  of  a  peerage  was  permitted  to  him.  It 
was  politely  declined,  and  he  remained  in  England  and  took 
an  active  part  in  the  struggle  for  freedom.1 

Mr.  Young  says,  "  This  family  of  Lincoln  had  a  more 
intimate  connection  with  New  England  settlements,  and 
must  have  felt  a  deeper  interest  in  their  success  than  any 
other  noble  house  in  England."  Cotton  Mather  describes 
the  family  in  "Magnalia,"  L  126,  as  religious,  and  "the  best 
family  of  any  nobleman  then  in  England." 

It  attaches  still  more  strongly  the  beginning  and  devel 
opment  of  New  England  to  this  ancient  Sempringham, 
and  to  this  illustrious  house  of  Lincoln,  that  Dudley  and  his 
distinguished  son-in-law,  Simon  Bradstreet,  were  both  at 
different  times  stewards  during  many  years  in  this  home, 
and  subsequently  were  both  a  long  time  magistrates  and 
governors  of  Massachusetts. 

All  things  had  seemed  to  be  in  preparation  for  many 
generations  for  this  very  hour.  The  intellectual,  religious, 
social,  and  political  revolution  in  Holland ;  the  great  move 
ment  of  spiritual  and  intellectual  life  culminating  in  the  Re 
formation  ;  the  vitalizing  force  of  Calvinism,  charged  with 
Christian  power,  which  had  everywhere  manifested  itself  in 
Europe,  and  later  in  America,  as  above  all  other  religious 
teaching  fruitful  in  individual  liberty  (although  its  doctrines 
were  harsh  and  its  methods  narrow),  —  were  each  and  all 
conspicuous  in  human  progress.  Liberty  has  flourished 
most  where  Calvinism  has  predominated. 

This  doctrine  took  a  deep  and  permanent  hold  of  the 
minds  of  the  people  who  inhabited  that  region  of  country 
north  of  London  on  the  eastern  side  of  England,  including 
Lincolnshire.  That  territory  was  always,  from  the  time  of 

1  Bancroft's  Hist,  of  U.  S.,  i.  385 ;  Hutchinson's  Hist.,  42  ;  Palfrey's 
History  of  New  England,  i.  389,  note. 


48  THOMAS   DUDLEY  [CH.  v 

the  Reformation,  inhabited  by  bold,  independent,  thoughtful, 
and  industrious  citizens.  Henry  VIII.  found  Lincolnshire 
independent  and  its  people  thoughtful,  for  he  called  them 
"the  most  brute  and  beastlie  of  the  whole  realm." 

They  were  in  close  proximity  to  the  Netherlands,  where 
spiritual  and  intellectual  freedom  had  achieved  their  most 
signal  triumphs,  and  where  were  to  be  found  the  finest 
manufactured  fabrics,  the  most  skilled  artisans  in  the  world, 
and  the  most  perfect  and  scientific  agriculture  known  at  that 
time.  Holland  was,  in  the  fifteenth  and  sixteenth  centu 
ries,  at  the  head  of  the  commerce  of  the  world.  It  was  later 
the  asylum  and  retreat  of  brave  people  of  every  race  who 
had  political  or  religious  ideas  dangerous  to  prerogatives  of 
tyrants,  or  hostile  to  so-called  divine  rights  to  rule  in  church 
or  state,  and  of  individuals  who  felt  their  personal  responsi 
bility  to  God,  but  none  to  priest  or  pope. 

Englishmen  crossed  the  Channel ;  they  fought  in  the  Low 
Countries  side  by  side  with  the  soldiers  of  the  Netherlands 
in  the  good  old  Protestant  cause;  they  brought,  on  their 
return  to  England,  the  invigorating  spirit  from  the  land  of 
their  sojourn.  In  addition  to  this,  the  white  sails  of  com 
merce,  then  as  now,  were  carrying  the  light  from  more 
favored  nations  to  those  which  sit  in  darkness. 

And,  in  turn,  "the  Flemings  (in  1570)  crowded  across  the 
Channel  in  tens  of  thousands,  and  brought  with  them  their 
arts  and  industries,  and  while  the  rich  looked  to  the  East 
for  the  silk  and  satins  ...  the  artisans,  the  laborers,  and 
the  farmers  were  clothed  from  the  looms  which  had  been 
brought  from  Ghent  and  Bruges  to  their  own  doors."  1 

"The  low  districts  about  the  Humber  and  the  Wash, 
reclaimed  from  the  ocean  by  the  Hollanders,  were  always 
hotbeds  of  Nonconformity :  here  was  the  original  Boston ; 
near  by  was  Cambridge,  the  home  of  Puritanism."  2 

1  Froude's  Hist,  of  Eng.,  x.  106. 

2  Douglas  Campbell's  The  Puritans  in  Hoi.,  Eng.,  and  Amer.,  i.  495 ; 
Fourth  Earl  of  Bedford,  Lodge's  Portraits,  iv.  299 ;  Carlyle's  Cromwell, 
i  89;  Chamb.  Ency.,  vi.  139. 


1625-30]  ST.  BOTOLPH   CHURCH,  BOSTON  49 

Men  from  the  other  side  of  the  Channel  educated  the 
English  in  manufactures.  They  were  descended  from  an 
ancestry  which  for  generations  had  resisted  the  sea  in  the 
Low  Countries,  and  they  helped  to  redeem  and  reclaim  the 
fens  of  Lincolnshire  and  its  neighborhood.  Devout  people 
reared  aloft  in  1309  the  tower  of  St.  Botolph,  the  parish 
church  of  Boston,  two  hundred  and  ninety-one  feet  above 
the  pavement,  resembling  the  majestic  tower  of  the  Cathe 
dral  of  Antwerp,  suggestive  at  least,  almost  prophetic,  of  the 
wonderful  service  which  the  emigrants  from  the  Netherlands 
would  render  centuries  later  in  delivering  from  the  thralldom 
of  the  sea  these  wide  fields,  rich  now  with  harvests,  and 
picturesque  with  thousands  of  sheep  and  cattle  grazing 
peacefully  over  their  broad  acres ;  because,  whenever  the 
eyes  of  these  delvers  and  dike-builders,  during  many  centu 
ries,  turned  to  the  tower,  visible  forty  miles  over  land  or 
sea,  it  smote  upon  their  hearts  with  a  message  of  home,  of 
childhood  and  youth,  of  early  loves  and  early  friends. 

Dudley  retired  to  Boston l  at  one  time,  and  made  it  his 
home,  that  he  might  listen  in  this  very  church  to  the  preach 
ing  of  the  Rev.  John  Cotton,2  who  afterwards  for  a  long  period 
was  the  most  noted  preacher  in  Boston,  Massachusetts. 

Dudley  dwelt  later,  probably  for  a  short  time  only,  near  to 
Isaac  Johnson,  at  Clipsham  in  Rutlandshire ;  but  Sempring- 
ham,  fifteen  miles  away,  was  always  the  centre  of  his  thought 
and  interest.  Nothing  of  importance,  Mather  assures  us, 
could  be  done  at  Sempringham  without  him,  whether  it  were 
to  direct  an  expedition  that  he  and  the  earl  might  go  in  two 
days  from  Sempringham  to  the  Hague,  "  by  reason  of  an  in 
terview  of  some  great  princes  that  were  then  to  be  present," 
and  there  by  his  tact  and  judgment  to  preserve  the  earl 
from  misfortune,  or  to  render  to  him  and  to  his  estate,  day 
after  day,  invaluable  and  most  highly  appreciated  services  at 
Sempringham. 

We  have  sought  to  show  the  environment  in  which  Dud- 

1  Palfrey,  i.  367,  note  3 ;  Proc.  Mass.  Hist.  Soc.,  Jan.  1870,  216. 

2  See  Letter  of  Dudley  to  Cotton,  p.  257  of  this  volume. 


50  THOMAS   DUDLEY  [CH.  v 

ley's  career  was  set,  the  society  and  people  most  influential 
in  shaping  his  course  in  life.  He  possessed  the  friendship 
and  the  confidence  of  Judge  Nicolls,  of  Lord  Compton,  of 
Lord  Saye  and  Sele,  of  the  Earl  of  Lincoln,  Isaac  Johnson, 
John  Humphreys,  and  a  great  number  of  the  most  eminent 
and  learned  ministers  of  his  time. 

These  friends  were  the  friends  of,  and  associates  with, 
Cromwell,  Hampden,  and  Pym.  They  were,  take  them  for 
all  in  all,  among  the  ablest  men  of  their  period.  Many  of  the 
great  soldiers  and  heroes  of  the  Commonwealth  came  from 
this  neighborhood ;  Cromwell,  Milton,  Hampden,  and  Fair 
fax,  for  example.  The  Ironsides  of  Cromwell  were,  it  is  said, 
from  the  region  of  the  fens.  This  vicinity  was  as  prolific  in 
heroes  and  armed  men  as  if  Jason  had  sown  the  fens  with 
dragons'  teeth. 

We  have  felt  particularly  desirous  to  establish  in  the  mind 
of  the  reader,  as  firmly  as  possible,  the  character  of  Dudley 
in  England  in  private  life  and  among  his  friends  and  asso 
ciates,  because,  if  we  are  quite  sure  that  we  have  found  his 
leading  characteristics,  and  that  they  were  sound  and  con 
sistent  year  after  year  up  to  fifty-four  (the  age  at  which  he 
emigrated),  we  may  feel  very  certain  that  the  rest  of  his 
life  was  of  the  same  general  nature  and  course.  This  view 
is  strengthened  by  the  very  firm  intellectual  and  moral  fibre 
and  constitution  of  the  man.  He  was 'strong  and  stable  by 
his  very  nature,  and  not  easily  turned  from  a  habit  once  fixed, 
or  an  opinion  once  carefully  and  thoughtfully  made  up,  so 
that  as  we  have  known  him  in  the  past  we  shall  find  him  to 
be  in  the  future.  What  he  was  therefore  in  England,  and 
what  were  his  characteristics  there,  are  very  important,  for 
the  reason  that  in  America  we  must  depend  upon  descrip 
tions  of  his  doings  sketched  by  political  rivals,  or  by  persons 
controlled,  whether  they  knew  it  or  not,  by  a  personal  or 
political  bias.  Dudley  has  not,  as  we  have  seen,  written  his 
own  defense  and  explanation  of  matters  and  causes  which  are, 
and  have  been  for  more  than  two  centuries,  used  to  detract 
from  his  just  fame  and  merit ;  therefore  it  is  with  great  satis- 


1616-25]        LARGE   EXPERIENCE   OF   DUDLEY  51 

faction  and  confidence  that  we  look  back  upon  a  long  life  the 
other  side  of  the  sea,  round,  complete,  and  full,  and  every 
where  distinguished  for  ability,  integrity,  and  wisdom,  to  aid 
us  in  doing  substantial  justice  to  his  career  in  America. 
While  we  think  of  him  as  a  man  who  adhered  to  his  convic 
tions,  like  St.  Paul,  Luther,  or  John  Hampden,  we  are  as 
sured  that  he  was  kind  of  heart,  and  just  to  the  rights  of  all 
persons.  As  we  have  seen,  he  was  of  "gentle  blood,"  was 
long  a  page  in  the  elegant  home  of  Lord  Compton,  and  must 
have  been  a  master  and  a  guide  in  the  ways  of  polite  society 
and  accomplished  manners.  He  was  associated  for  years 
with  a  distinguished  judge  of  the  Court  of  Common  Pleas, 
during  which  years  Sir  Edward  Coke  was  chief  justice  of 
that  very  court.  And  it  must  have  been  his  constant  duty, 
as  clerk,  either  himself  to  give  expression  to  the  opinions 
of  the  judge  or  to  study  them  as  given;  in  any  event,  he 
had  ever  before  him  justice  between  man  and  man,  and  the 
golden  rule  as  his  constant  guide  and  inspiration.  Here  in 
this  occupation  he  must  have  become  well  seasoned  with 
justice  and  mercy.  His  views  of  life  had  been  early  broad 
ened  by  a  sojourn  in  the  army  of  Henry  IV.  His  business 
life  had  been  unusually  successful.  His  social  position  had 
been  all  that  could  be  desired.  And  with  the  advantage  of 
great  connection,  of  wide  and  varied  observation  in  life,  brim 
ful  of  the  best  quality  of  experience  in  every  direction,  in  his 
ripe  mature  age  he  joined  the  great  emigration.  "The  past 
at  least  is  secure."  And  the  future  will  be  like  unto  it. 

Dudley  had  no  need  to  make  a  business  adventure  three 
thousand  miles  over  the  ocean.  He  was  already,  in  England, 
retired  from  business,  and  was  probably  one  of  the  most  afflu 
ent  men  in  the  colony  during  his  lifetime.  If  the  real  indis 
pensable  things  of  life  did  not  draw  him  from  fatherland, 
from  the  culture  and  luxury  of  Old  England  in  which  he  had 
been  reared,  what  were  the  all-sufficient  motives  determining 
his  future  course  ? 

Whether  he  had  bread  in  England  or  not,  there  are  greater 
things  in  this  world  than  bread,  although  it  is  the  staff  of  life. 


52  THOMAS   DUDLEY  [CH.  v 

"  Man  shall  not  live  by  bread  alone."  So  soon  as  he  was 
assured  that  the  Massachusetts  Charter  would  go  to  America 
with  them,  and  that  the  possibilities  of  a  regenerated  and 
purified  church  and  state  lay  before  them,  he  consulted  not 
flesh  and  blood  but  cast  in  his  lot  with  the  adventure.  He 
risked  in  this  comfortless  enterprise  not  only  himself  and 
his  property,  but,  what  was  far  dearer  to  him,  the  lives  and 
fortunes  of  his  wife  and  five  children,  the  oldest  of  whom, 
Samuel,  was  only  twenty  years  of  age.1 

Mather  no  doubt  stated  the  situation  well  when  he  said 
that  "the  times  began  to  look  black  and  cloudy  upon  the 
Nonconformists,  of  which  Mr.  Dudley  was  one  to  the  full." 
These  people  were  reasonably  convinced  that  the  only  true 
and  safe  course  was  to  break  at  once  totally  with  the  past, 
taking  the  best  of  everything  that  it  had  produced,  and  to 
transplant  it  on  virgin  soil  beyond  the  sea,  a  glorious  heritage 
for  succeeding  generations.  It  was  now  the  way  of  least 
resistance.  The  king  was  glad  to  be  rid  of  them,  although 
it  has  been  said  and  disputed  that  Cromwell  and  Hampden 
were  detained  and  never  came. 

Freedom  to  worship  God  was  before  them,  in  a  Puritan 
English  Church  cleansed  from  all  the  defilements  clinging 
to  the  ancient  church  through  the  dark  periods  of  history. 
The  Puritans,  says  Lowell,  "  were  the  most  perfect  incarna 
tion  of  an  idea  the  world  has  seen."  They  were  leaving 
behind  them  the  wornout  and  cast-off  vesture  of  church 
and  state,  kingcraft  and  priesthood.2  Behind  them  also  were 
war-clouds,  dark  and  ominous,  charged  with  revolution,  which 
was  soon  to  drench  the  land  in  fraternal  blood. 

Dudley  had  twenty-three  wonderful  years  before  him  ; 
they  were  a  glorious  remnant  of  life,  full  of  noble,  self-sacri 
ficing  privations  and  sufferings,  upon  which  he  entered  "  with 
firmness  in  the  right  as  God  [gave  him]  to  see  the  right,"  to 
secure  the  blessings  of  civil  and  religious  liberty  to  posterity. 

There  is  a  sadly  sweet  remembrance  that  lingers  over  all 

1  History  of  Dudley  Family,  i.  276. 
3  Quincy's  Hist.  Boston,  324. 


1625-30]     DUDLEY   INSPIRED   BY  PURITANISM  53 

of  these  ancient  highways,  these  fens  stretching  far  away 
to  the  sea,  and  over  all  the  smiling  tract  of  Lincolnshire  and 
its  surroundings,  because  it  was  in  these  sacred  scenes  that 
Thomas  Dudley,  the  second  governor  of  Massachusetts, 
thoughtfully  and  prayerfully,  as  he  went  to  and  fro,  consid 
ered  the  founding  of  the  Colony  of  Massachusetts  during 
the  five  years  from  1625  to  1630.  The  scene  is  almost  un 
changed,  except  in  the  more  highly  cultivated  fields ;  there 
are  the  same  church  towers,  roads,  dwellings,  the  same  vari 
eties  of  birds  and  flowers.1 

Here  he  wandered,  while  one  great  thought  was  slowly 
taking  possession  of  him,  —  that  his  departure  was  at  hand, 
and  that  never  in  all  his  life  would  he  revisit  these  dear  old 
ways  and  haunts,  or  see  their  like  again. 

1  Dudley  was  an  executor  of  the  will  of  Isaac  Johnson,  wherein  he 
is  mentioned  as  of  Clipsham,  in  the  county  of  Rutland,  March,  1629, 
O.  S.,  from  which  we  conclude  that  he  had  removed  from  Boston,  and 
was  residing  during  his  last  days  in  England,  near  the  home  of  Isaac 
Johnson  and  Lady  Arbella.  He  may  have  been  led  to  this  in  order 
to  be  helpful  in  closing  up  their  affairs,  preparatory  to  emigration." 
(Mass.  Hist.  Soc.  Coll.,  3d  series,  viii.  245.) 


CHAPTER  VI 

Religion  stands  on  tiptoe  in  our  land, 
Ready  to  pass  to  the  American  strand. 

Herbert. 

THE  most  important  emigration  to  America  which  was 
ever  made,  and,  it  is  sometimes  said,  which  has  ever  been 
made  in  the  history  of  the  world,  was  about  to  be  undertaken, 
and  Dudley  was  to  have  a  leading  part  in  it,  and  in  the 
colony. 

Mather  says  that,  "  when  the  enterprise  for  New  England 
began  to  be  set  forth,  Mr.  Dudley  embraced  that  opportunity, 
and  so  resolved  to  leave  England  and  travel  over  the  sea 
into  the  deserts  of  America,  that  there  he  might  with  other 
Nonconformists  enjoy  his  liberty  to  the  utmost  of  what  he 
desired.  Mr.  Dudley  was  not  among  the  first  of  them  that 
embarked  in  the  design  for  New  England,  which  is  the  rea 
son  why  he  was  not  numbered  among  the  patentees."  1 

There  had  been  many  attempts  by  the  English  before  this 
period  to  found  colonies  on  the  shores  of  Massachusetts  Bay, 
without  success,  and  Mather  attributes  their  failure  to  the 
fact  that  their  design  was  to  advance  some  "  worldly  inter 
ests."  He  means,  no  doubt,  such  as  to  catch  fish  or  to  seek 
gold.2 

He  informs  us  also  that  good  news  from  the  Plymouth 
plantation  "inspired  the  renowned  Mr.  White  [Rev.  John 
White],  minister  of  Dorchester,  to  prosecute  the  settlement 

1  Proc.  Mass.  Hist.  Soc.,  Jan.  1870,  216. 

2  Mather's  Mag.,  i.  61.     It  has  been  said  that,  if  gold  had  been  found 
in  New  England  and  the  cultivation  of  the  soil  and  manufactures  neg 
lected,  democracy  would  not  have  subsisted  here.     (Atlantic  Monthly, 
Ixxii.  8 1 6.) 


1630]  EMIGRATION    TO   AMERICA  55 

of  such  another  plantation  here  for  the  propagation  of  reli 
gion.  This  good  man  engaged  several  gentlemen,  about  the 
year  1624,  in  this  noble  design;  and  they  employed  a  most 
religious,  prudent,  worthy  gentleman,  one  Mr.  Roger  Conant, 
in  the  government  of  the  place."  He  made  choice  of  Salem 
as  a  refuge  for  the  exiles  of  religion.  Mr.  Conant  and  his 
three  companions  were  "  the  sentinels  of  Puritanism "  in 
Massachusetts.1  "  This  man  was  inspired,  as  it  were,  by  some 
superior  instinct,"  and  thus  made  a  beginning  in  1626. 

The  deed  from  the  Council  of  Plymouth,  in  England,  to 
Sir  Henry  Roswell,  Sir  John  Young,  Thomas  Southcoat, 
John  Humphrey,  John  Endicott,  and  Simon  Whetcomb, 
bearing  date  March  19,  1628,  conveyed  the  land  extending 
three  miles  south  of  the  river  Charles  and  the  Massachu 
setts  Bay,  and  three  miles  north  of  every  part  of  the  river 
Merrimac,  from  the  Atlantic  to  the  Pacific  Ocean.  The 
grantees  received  as  associates  Sir  Richard  Saltonstall,  Isaac 
Johnson,  Matthew  Cradock,  Increase  Nowell,  Richard  Bel- 
lingham,  Theophilus  Eaton,  William  Pynchon,  and  others."  z 

A  royal  charter  was  granted  incorporating  the  Governor 
and  Company  of  Massachusetts  Bay,  March  4,  1628  (29). 
But  Endicott  had  gone  in  September,  1628,  to  Salem,  Mass., 
with  six  vessels  containing  emigrants,  supplies,  cattle,  and 
other  needful  things.  They  established  at  Salem  a  church 
by  mutual  covenant,  with  Skelton  as  pastor  and  Higginson 
as  teacher,  and  sent  men  to  begin  another  settlement  at 
Charlestown. 

Dudley,  after  giving  some  account  of  the  various  former 
expeditions  to  Massachusetts  to  obtain  fish  and  beaver,  pro 
ceeds  to  give  his  account  of  the  colonization  of  that  neigh 
borhood,  in  which  he  himself  took  a  great  part.  He  says 
(as  we  have  previously  mentioned,  p.  44) :  "  Touching  the 
plantation  which  we  here  have  begun,  it  fell  out  thus  :  About 
the  year  1627,  some  friends,  being  together  in  Lincolnshire, 
fell  into  discourse  about  New  England,  and  the  planting  of 

1  Bancroft's  Hist.  U.  S.,  i.  339. 

2  Mather's  Mag.,  i.  62,  63. 


56  THOMAS   DUDLEY  [CH.  vi 

the  gospel  there ;  and  after  some  deliberation  we  imparted 
our  reasons,  by  letters  and  messages,  to  some  in  London 
and  the  west  country ;  where  it  was  likewise  deliberately 
thought  upon,  and  at  length  with  often  negotiations  so 
ripened,  that  in  the  year  1628-29  we  procured  a  patent  from 
his  Majesty  for  our  planting  between  the  Massachusetts  Bay 
and  Charles  River  on  the  south,  and  the  river  of  Merrimac 
on  the  north,  and  three  miles  on  either  side  of  those  rivers 
and  bay ;  as  also  for  the  government  of  those  who  did  or 
should  inhabit  within  that  compass.  And  the  same  year  we 
sent  Mr.  John  Endicott  [June,  1628]  and  some  with  him  to 
begin  a  plantation,  and  to  strengthen  such  as  he  should  find 
there,  which  we  sent  thither  from  Dorchester1  and  some 
places  adjoining.  From  whom  the  same  year  receiving 
hopeful  news,  the  next  year,  1629,  we  sent  divers  ships 
over,  with  about  three  hundred  people,  and  some  cows,  goats, 
and  horses,  many  of  which  arrived  safely. 

"  These,  by  their  too  large  commendations  of  the  country 
and  the  commodities  thereof,  invited  us  so  strongly  to  go  on 
that  Mr.  Winthrop,  of  Suffolk,  (who  was  well  known  in  his  own 
country,  and  well  approved  here  for  his  piety,  liberality,  wis 
dom,  and  gravity,)  coming  in  to  us,  we  came  to  such  resolu 
tion  that  in  April,  1630,  we  set  sail  from  Old  England  with 
four  good  ships.  And  in  May  following  eight  more  followed ; 
two  having  gone  before  in  February  and  March,  and  two 
more  following  in  June  and  August,  besides  another  set  out 
by  a  private  merchant."  2 

It  has  been  said  that,  "  while  all  the  forty  counties  of  Eng 
land  were  more  or  less  represented  among  the  emigrants  to 
Massachusetts,  the  shires  on  the  eastern  side  contributed  far 
more  than  all  the  rest.  It  is  estimated  that  two  thirds  of 
the  American  people  (emigrants)  came  from  these,  one  sixth 
from  Devon,  Dorset,  and  Somerset,  and  the  remaining  one 
sixth  from  all  other  parts  of  England."  3 

1  Young's  Chron.,  23-29. 

2  Ib.,  309-311. 

8  John  Brown's  Pilgrim  Fathers  of  New  England,  266. 


1630]          WINCHESTER  AND   THE   EMIGRANTS  57 

The  spring  of  1630  was  an  eventful  season.  A  large 
number  of  people,  amounting  to  about  fifteen  hundred  per 
sons,  were  contemplating  a  final  departure  to  America.  All 
through  the  months  of  January,  February,  March,  and  April 
these  Puritan  exiles  were  closing  up  their  worldly  affairs  as 
if  about  to  make  their  final  adieu  to  this  planet.  They  were 
collecting  and  thoughtfully  considering  what  needful  things 
should  be  taken  by  them  over  the  sea.  In  those  March  days 
they  began  to  wend  their  way  towards  Southampton,  the 
place  of  embarkation,  whence  ten  years  before  the  May 
flower  and  the  Speedwell  had  sailed  for  Plymouth,  freighted 
with  hopes  of  future  years  and  with  unmeasured  destiny,  for 
the  Massachusetts  Colony  took  inspiration  from  Plymouth. 

They  would  naturally  pass  in  their  journey  ancient  Win 
chester,  the  old-time  capital  of  the  kingdom,  the  capital  of 
the  British,  the  Saxon,  and  the  Norman  kings,  and  the  be 
loved  resort  of  English  kings  and  queens  until  long  after 
the  departure  of  the  Puritans  to  America.  These  Puritans 
have  sometimes  been  spoken  of  as  the  rising  and  triumphant 
remnant  of  that  Saxon  race  which,  vanquished  at  the  battle 
of  Hastings  under  Harold,  and  in  the  fens  of  Lincolnshire, 
had  returned  to  grind  to  powder  in  succeeding  years  the 
residue  of  the  feudal  system,  with  its  oppressive  tenures, 
and  to  preserve  this  continent  from  its  baneful  tyranny. 

Whether  it  meant  anything  to  these  proscribed  people, 
who  were  then  filing  through  the  streets  of  the  old  capital, 
or  not,  it  was  fit  and  proper  that  they  should  pay  their  last 
reverent  homage  at  the  grave  of  Alfred  the  Great,1  and  at 
the  resting-place  of  the  other  Saxon  kings,  before  their  with 
drawal  to  plant  on  another  continent  that  liberty  denied  to 
them  at  home,  which  their  ancestors  had  struggled  and 
died  for,  under  the  kings  whose  ashes  were  treasured  up  in 
yonder  cathedral,  and  are  still  preserved  as  the  heritage 
of  the  English-speaking  nations.2 

1  F.  W.  Farrar's  Cathedrals  of  England,  278. 

2  And  that  they  should  remember  that  Alfred  the  Great  "  left  behind 
him  in  his  will,  as  an  immortal  legacy  to  his  country,  the  sentiment  — 


58  THOMAS   DUDLEY  [CH.  vi 

They  would  find  at  Southampton,  if  they  sought  for  it  in 
the  New  Forest,  the  oak,  then  more  than  five  hundred  years 
old,  which  was  said  to  have  turned  the  arrow  sped  from  the 
bow  of  Walter  Tirel  to  the  heart  of  William  Rufus,  the  Nor 
man  king,  August  2,  noo.  "The  arrow,  by  whomsoever 
shot,  set  England  free  from  oppression  such  as  she  never 
felt  before  or  after  at  the  hand  of  a  single  man."  l 

There  were  four  ships  of  the  fleet  ready,  and  they  sailed 
from  Southampton,  March  22,  1630.  Leaving  behind  the 
Mayflower,  and  six  other  ships  to  follow,  they  ran  across 
the  Southampton  Water  and  the  Solent  to  Cowes,  on  the 
Isle  of  Wight  (the  distance  of  an  hour's  sail  by  the  steamer 
of  to-day),  and  a  week  later,  on  March  29,  again  proceeded 
a  little  on  their  way. 

We  are  especially  interested  in  the  Arbella.  She  was  a 
ship  of  three  hundred  and  fifty  tons,  carrying  twenty-eight 
guns  and  fifty-two  men.  Peter  Melbourne  was  her  master, 
and  owned  a  share  in  her.  The  excellent  and  beautiful  Lady 
Arbella  Johnson,  sister  of  the  Earl  of  Lincoln,  and  her  hus 
band,  Isaac  Johnson,  were  on  board  this  ship.  Governor 
John  Winthrop  and  two  of  his  sons  were  passengers  of  the 
first  importance,  also  Sir  Richard  Saltonstall,  with  three 
sons  and  two  daughters  ;  the  Rev.  George  Philips  and  wife ; 
William  Coddington  and  wife,  afterwards  of  Rhode  Island ; 
Thomas  Dudley,  deputy  governor  of  Massachusetts,  with 
his  wife,  Dorothy  Dudley,  with  one  son,  Samuel,  and  four 
daughters,  —  Anne,  sixteen  years  old,  the  youthful  bride  of 
Simon  Bradstreet,  who  was  with  her,  and  her  sisters,  Pa 
tience,  Sarah,  and  Mercy. 

As   the  Arbella   moved   over  that   extensive   bay  called 

how  glorious  from  the  heart  of  a  great  and  victorious  king !  —  that  *  it 
is  just  that  the  English  should  forever  remain  as  free  as  their  own 
thoughts.'"  (Hewitt's  Visits  to  Remarkable  Places,  Winchester,  177  ; 
Lappenberg's  Hist,  of  Eng.  under  the  Anglo-Saxon  Kings,  99.) 

It  is  because  these  emigrants  cannot  be  as  free  as  their  thoughts, 
in  the  kingdom  once  ruled  over  by  Alfred  the  Great,  that  they  are  now 
making  haste  to  bid  farewell  to  the  home  of  their  ancestors. 

1  E.  A.  Freeman's  Reign  of  William  Rufus,  i.  337. 


1630]  FAREWELL  TO   ENGLAND  59 

Southampton  Water,  if  the  wonderful  tides  served  on  that 
22d  day  of  March,  1630,  there  was  hardly  any  more  beau 
tiful  sheet  of  water  set  in  more  lovely  shores.  The  fare 
well  view  of  Old  England  presented  to  their  lingering  gaze 
was  in  the  midst  of  the  most  exquisite  scenery  that  land, 
water,  hills,  dales,  and  woods  ever  formed.  On  either  side 
are  beautiful  villas,  the  walls  of  old  and  ivy-covered  towers, 
and  the  ruins  of  ancient  abbeys. 

It  is  not  possible  for  us  to  penetrate  the  veil  which  hid 
the  deep  feelings  and  well-springs  of  thought  in  the  minds 
of  these  people,  however  active  our  imagination,  however 
much  we  may  seek  to  do  it.  It  is  an  unusual  experience  to 
go  forth  with  no  hope  of  returning ;  it  is  like  bidding  fare 
well  to  mortal  affairs.  They  were  assured  that  this  was 
their  last  view  of  home,  and  ruins,  and  ivy-mantled  towers, 
of  historic  associations  connected  with  their  ancestors  for 
thousands  of  years.  But  deeper,  more  heart-rending  than 
all,  was  the  severing  of  tender  ties  of  family  and  friendship. 
There  could  be  no  future  meetings,  and  for  the  multitude 
little  or  no  correspondence.  There  may,  it  is  true,  have 
been  many  who  had  been  weaned  from  intense  love  of 
fatherland  by  what  they  had  suffered,  and  who  hailed  their 
hour  of  deliverance  with  joy.  There  may  have  been  others 
who  were  so  inspired  by  that  vista  of  religious  and  political 
freedom  beyond  the  sea,  by  their  visions  of  a  Utopia  towards 
which  they  were  now  tending,  that  the  mighty  past  became 
as  nothing  in  comparison  with  the  future  which  lay  before 
them.  Nevertheless,  to  one  and  all  of  them  there  surely 
came  moments  when  the  tide  of  feeling  had  its  way,  and 
their  hearts  were  true  and  tender  with  thoughts  of  home 
and  early  friends. 

The  last  meeting  of  the  Court  of  Assistants  on  English 
soil  was  at  Southampton  four  days  before  they  sailed.1  The 
Arbella  was  on  March  23  riding  at  Cowes.  Here  on  board 
the  ship,  at  a  Court  of  Assistants,  Thomas  Dudley  was 
chosen  deputy  governor  in  place  of  John  Humphrey,  who 
1  Mass.  Col.  Rec.,  i.  69. 


60  THOMAS   DUDLEY  [CH.  vi 

had  decided  not  to  embark  then,  but  who  came  to  America 
later. 

Dudley  held  this  same  office  by  annual  elections  thirteen 
different  years.  This  was  the  very  last  record  in  England 
of  the  Massachusetts  Company,  and  its  purpose  was  to  con 
fer  honor  and  responsibility  upon  Dudley.  The  four  ships 
sailed  from  Cowes  on  the  2Qth  of  March,  and  were  soon  at 
Yarmouth  in  the  Isle  of  Wight.  They  were  delayed  there 
more  than  a  week  by  contrary  winds.  This  gave  the  emi 
grants  the  privilege  of  a  visit,  on  April  6,  from  the  captain 
of  Yarmouth  Castle,  who  took  breakfast  with  them.  They 
were  also  honored  with  a  visit  the  same  day  from  Matthew 
Cradock,  the  first  governor  of  the  company,  who  never 
came  to  America.  He  had  once  before  at  their  embarkation 
bidden  them  farewell,  but  his  interest  was  so  deep  in  the 
enterprise  that  he  had  followed  them  to  their  last  anchorage 
on  the  coast  of, Europe. 

Governor  Winthrop  informs  us  that  "  Lady  Arbella  and  the 
gentlewomen,  and  Mr.  Johnson  and  some  others,  went  on 
shore  to  refresh  themselves."  No  doubt  it  was  a  great  de 
light  to  them  to  be  permitted  unexpectedly  once  more,  and 
for  the  very  last  time,  to  step  upon  the  soil  of  Old  England, 
and  Yarmouth  will  always  have  the  honor  of  being  the  place 
of  this  farewell. 

But  the  next  day  a  more  important  event  in  human  history 
transpired,  when  the  following  letter,  signed  by  the  most 
notable  men  in  the  cabin  of  the  Arbella,  setting  forth  their 
affection  and  loyalty  toward  the  Church  of  England,  "  their 
dear  mother,"  went  forth  from  this  village  of  Yarmouth, 
giving  it  a  lasting  place  in  the  memories  of  men :  — 

"The  Humble  Request  of  His  Majesty's  Loyal  Subjects, 
the  Governor  and  the  Company  late  gone  for  New  Eng 
land  ;  To  the  rest  of  their  Brethren  in  and  of  the  Church 
of  England.  For  the  obtaining  of  their  Prayers,  and  the 
removal  of  suspicions,  and  misconstructions  of  their  In 
tentions  :  — 


1630]  THE   HUMBLE   REQUEST  61 

"  Reverend  Fathers  and  Brethren,  — The  general  rumor  of 
this  solemn  enterprise,  wherein  ourselves  with  others,  through 
the  providence  of  the  Almighty,  are  engaged,  as  it  may  spare 
us  the  labor  of  imparting  our  occasion  unto  you,  so  it  gives 
us  the  more  encouragement  to  strengthen  ourselves  by  the 
procurement  of  the  prayers  and  blessings  of  the  Lord's  faith 
ful  servants.  For  which  end  we  are  bold  to  have  recourse 
unto  you,  as  those  whom  God  hath  placed  nearest  his  throne 
of  mercy ;  which,  as  it  affords  you  the  more  opportunity,  so 
it  imposeth  the  greater  bond  upon  you,  to  intercede  for  his 
people  in  all  their  straits.  We  beseech  you,  therefore,  by  the 
mercies  of  the  Lord  Jesus,  to  consider  us  as  your  brethren, 
standing  in  very  great  need  of  your  help,  and  earnestly  im 
ploring  it.  And  howsoever  your  charity  may  have  met  with 
some  occasion  of  discouragement  through  the  misreport  of 
our  intentions,  or  through  the  disaffection  or  indiscretion  of 
some  of  us,  or  rather  amongst  us  (for  we  are  not  of  those  that 
dream  of  perfection  in  this  world),  yet  we  desire  you  would 
be  pleased  to  take  notice  of  the  principals  and  body  of  our 
Company,  as  those  who  esteem  it  our  honor  to  call  the  Church 
of  England,  from  whence  we  rise,  our  dear  mother  ;  and 
cannot  part  from  our  native  country,  where  she  specially 
resideth,  without  much  sadness  of  heart  and  many  tears  in 
our  eyes,  ever  acknowledging  that  such  hope  and  part  as  we 
have  obtained  in  the  common  salvation,  we  have  received  in 
her  bosom,  and  sucked  it  from  her  breasts. 

"  We  leave  it  not  therefore  as  loathing  that  milk  where 
with  we  were  nourished  there;  but,  blessing  God  for  the 
parentage  and  education,  as  members  of  the  same  body,  shall 
always  rejoice  in  her  good,  and  unfeignedly  grieve  for  any 
sorrow  that  shall  ever  betide  her,  and  while  we  have  breath, 
sincerely  desire  and  endeavour  the  continuance  and  abun 
dance  of  her  welfare,  with  the  enlargement  of  her  bounds  in 
the  Kingdom  of  Christ  Jesus. 

"  Be  pleased,  therefore,  reverend  fathers  and  brethren,  to 
help  forward  this  work  now  in  hand  ;  which  if  it  prosper, 
you  shall  be  the  more  glorious,  howsoever  your  judgment  is 


62  THOMAS   DUDLEY  [CH.  vi 

with  the  Lord,  and  your  reward  with  your  God.  It  is  a  usual 
and  laudable  exercise  of  your  charity,  to  commend  to  the 
prayers  of  your  congregations  the  necessities  and  straits  of 
your  private  neighbours  :  do  the  like  for  a  Church  springing 
out  of  your  own  bowels.  We  conceive  much  hope  that  this 
remembrance  of  us,  if  it  be  frequent  and  fervent,  will  be  a 
most  prosperous  gale  in  our  sails,  and  provide  such  a  passage 
and  welcome  for  us  from  the  God  of  the  whole  earth,  as 
both  we  which  shall  find  it,  and  yourselves,  with  the  rest  of 
our  friends,  who  shall  hear  of  it,  shall  be  much  enlarged  to 
bring  in  such  daily  returns  of  thanksgivings,  as  the  special 
ties  of  his  providence  and  goodness  may  justly  challenge 
at  all  our  hands.  You  are  not  ignorant  that  the  spirit  of 
God  stirred  up  the  Apostle  Paul  to  make  continual  mention 
of  the  Church  of  Philippi,  which  was  a  colony  from  Rome ; 
let  the  same  spirit,  we  beseech  you,  put  you  in  mind,  that  are 
the  Lord's  remembrancers,  to  pray  for  us  without  ceasing, 
who  are  a  weak  colony  from  yourselves,  making  continual 
request  for  us  to  God  in  all  your  prayers. 

"  What  we  entreat  of  you  that  are  the  ministers  of  God, 
that  we  also  crave  at  the  hands  of  all  the  rest  of  our  brethren, 
that  they  would  at  no  time  forget  us  in  their  private  solicita 
tions  at  the  throne  of  grace. 

"  If  any  there  be  who,  through  want  of  clear  intelligence 
of  our  course,  or  tenderness  of  affection  towards  us,  cannot 
conceive  so  well  of  our  way  as  we  could  desire,  we  would 
entreat  such  not  to  despise  us,  nor  to  desert  us  in  their 
prayers  and  affections,  but  to  consider  rather  that  they  are 
so  much  the  more  bound  to  express  the  bowels  of  their  com 
passion  towards  us,  remembering  always  that  both  nature 
and  grace  doth  ever  bind  us  to  relieve  and  rescue,  with  our 
utmost  and  speediest  power,  such  as  are  dear  unto  us,  when 
we  conceive  them  to  be  running  uncomfortable  hazards. 

"What  goodness  you  shall  extend  to  us  in  this  or  any 
other  Christian  kindness,  we,  your  brethren  in  Christ  Jesus, 
shall  labor  to  repay  in  what  duty  we  are  or  shall  be  able  to 
perform,  promising,  so  far  as  God  shall  enable  us,  to  give 


1630]  THE   HUMBLE   REQUEST  63 

him  no  rest  on  your  behalfs,  wishing  our  heads  and  hearts 
may  be  as  fountains  of  tears  for  your  everlasting  welfare 
when  we  shall  be  in  our  poor  cottages  in  the  wildernes-s, 
overshadowed  with  the  spirit  of  supplication,  through  the 
manifold  necessities  and  tribulations  which  may  not  alto 
gether  unexpectedly,  nor,  we  hope,  unprofitably,  befall  us. 
And  so  commending  you  to  the  grace  of  God  in  Christ,  we 
shall  ever  rest 

Your  assured  friends  and  brethren, 
"  JOHN  WINTHROP,  Gov.,        RICHARD  SALTONSTALL, 
CHARLES  FINES,  ISAAC  JOHNSON, 

GEORGE  PHILLIPPS,  THOMAS  DUDLEY, 

WILLIAM  CODDINGTON, 
&c.  &c. 

"From  Yarmouth,  aboard  the  Arbella,  April  7,  1630." l 

The  fact  that  Winthrop's  name  as  governor  appears  first 
in  this  letter  among  the  signers  of  it  would  not  seem  to  give 
any  assurance  that  he  was  the  author.  Mr.  Robert  C.  Win- 
throp  dwells  with  some  satisfaction  upon  his  possible  author 
ship  of  it.  The  pathetic  parts  seem  more  like  the  work  of  a 
minister  than  of  Governor  Winthrop  or  of  Governor  Dudley, 
although  neither  of  them  was  wanting  in  emotional  power  of 
expression  when  the  occasion  demanded,  as  we  shall  here 
after  discover.  It  is  not  probable  that  any  person  in  the 
colony  in  the  time  of  Governor  Dudley  had  greater  power  in 
drawing  public  letters  and  documents  in  apt  words  and  terse 
forms  of  expression  than  himself.  He  had  given  years  to 
this  very  difficult  occupation  under  the  instructions  of  Judge 
Nicolls,  a  great  master  in  that  art. 

The  authorship  is  unimportant,  and  it  need  not  be  assumed 
for  either  of  them  without  evidence.  They  may  all  have  the 
credit  of  a  joint  composition,  and  each  may  be  held  responsi 
ble  for  all  that  appears  in  the  letter,  and  each  and  all  have 
the  credit  of  every  worthy  and  exalted  sentiment  contained 
in  it. 

1  Young's  Chron.,  295. 


64  THOMAS   DUDLEY  [CH.  vi 

The  particular  value  of  this  letter  is  in  their  clear  and 
unrestricted  declaration  of  perfect  loyalty  to  the  Church  of 
England  and  most  deep  and  sincere  attachment  to  it.  They 
were  not  yet  Separatists.  They  were  hereafter  to  be  trained 
in  a  rugged  school,  until  step  by  step  their  dear  and  early 
church  affiliations  would  disappear  and  leave  them  only  in 
flexible  Independents.  When  they  signed  this  letter,  they 
were  Puritans,  who  were  constantly  saying  to  the  Established 
Church,  "  Thou  ailest  here  and  here,"  but  their  cry  was  soon 
unavailing,  and  they  went  their  own  way.  They  had  said, 
"  We  do  not  go  to  New  England  as  Separatists  from  the 
Church  of  England,  though  we  cannot  but  separate  from  the 
corruptions  in  it ;  but  we  go  to  practice  the  positive  part  of 
Church  reformation,  and  propagate  the  Gospel  in  America." 
They  set  sail  in  earnest  for  their  long  voyage  across  the 
Atlantic,  Thursday,  April  8,  about  six  in  the  morning,  and 
before  ten  they  were  through  the  Needles,  which  will  always 
recall,  to  persons  interested  in  the  exiles  on  those  ships,  their 
very  last  adieu  but  one  to  their  native  land.  Those  pointed 
rocks  were  then  as  beautiful  as  to-day,  with  the  same  curious 
"  effect  produced  by  the  wonderfully  colored  cliffs,  contrasted 
with  the  glittering  masses  of  the  snowy  Needles,"  visible  to 
all  who  pass  along  this  great  highway  of  nations,  century 
after  century. 

As  they  were  sailing  along  the  coast  of  England  on  the 
first  day,  they  were  made  very  anxious  because  eight  sail 
astern  of  them  seemed  to  be  Dunkirkers,  hostile  to  England 
and  dangerous  to  them.  They  put  themselves  and  their 
ships  in  fighting  trim  with  great  courage  and  calmness  ;  "  the 
Lady  Arbella  and  the  other  women  and  children  were  re 
moved  into  the  lower  deck,  that  they  might  be  out  of  danger. 
All  things  being  thus  fitted,  we  went  to  prayer  upon  the 
upper  deck.  It  was  much  to  see  how  cheerful  and  comfort 
able  all  the  company  appeared ;  not  a  woman  or  child  that 
showed  fear,  though  all  did  apprehend  the  danger  to  have 
been  great,  if  things  had  proved  as  might  well  be  expected, 


1630]  SCILLY   ISLES  65 

.  .  .  but  our  trust  was  in  the  Lord  of  Hosts."  l  The  ships 
proved  to  be  friendly  and  harmless,  but  it  reveals  to  us  what 
manifold  perils  they  were  exposed  to  at  all  times. 

They  were  on  Sunday,  the  1 1  th  of  April,  past  the  Scilly 
Isles,  where  thirty  years  after  Sir  Harry  Vane,  fourth  gov 
ernor  of  Massachusetts,  was  a  state  prisoner.2  They  had  a 
small  accident,  and  the  minister  and  the  people  were  sick, 
and  they  were  all  out  of  order  that  day,  and  could  have  no 
sermons. 

The  next  day,  Governor  Winthrop  says,  "  our  children  and 
others,  that  were  sick,  and  lay  groaning  in  the  cabins,  we 
fetched  out,  and  having  stretched  a  rope  from  the  steerage 
to  the  mainmast,  we  made  them  stand,  some  of  one  side  and 
some  of  the  other,  and  sway  it  up  and  down  till  they  were 
warm,  and  by  this  means  they  soon  grew  well  and  merry."  3 

1  Winthrop,  i. 

2  J.  B.  Moore's  Memoirs  of  Am.  Governors,  332. 

3  Winthrop,  i.  *$. 


CHAPTER  VII 

WE  have  not  mentioned  that  the  first  charter  of  Massa 
chusetts  was  on  board  the  Arbella,  and  being  transported  to 
America,  a  fact  often  unjustly  declared  to  be  due  to  sharp 
practice  on  the  part  of  the  Puritans,  the  grantees.  We  most 
heartily  join  these  critics  in  disapproving  of  the  sentiments 
of  the  Greek  poet,  that  "  unrighteousness  might  be  fittingly 
practiced  in  order  to  obtain  a  crown,  but  that  righteousness 
should  be  practiced  in  all  other  times  and  places."  1 

This  theory  of  virtual  deception  on  the  part  of  the  Puri 
tans  has  been  assumed  and  argued  long  and  fervently  by 
persons  who  have  been  searching  for  their  transgressions, 
and  who  have  not  always  been  embarrassed  by  worship  of 
ancestors,  but  only  afflicted  with  an  ambition  to  champion 
the  thrice-popular  cause  of  liberty,  often  themselves  simply 
indifferent  to  religion  or  to  limitations  which  the  best  stand 
ards  in  this  generation  approve,  and  which  the  Puritans 
deemed  most  sacred  and  binding  upon  them.  There  has 
been  a  reaction  in  Puritan  Boston,  and  the  pendulum,  in 
swinging  away  from  the  intolerance  of  the  seventeenth  cen 
tury,  has  gone  to  the  other  extreme,  and  persons  to  the 
manor  born  have  prided  themselves  in  casting  overboard 
the  founders  of  the  old  Commonwealth  as  Jonahs  who  made 
an  unseemly  record,  and  whose  memory  ought  not  to  be 
much  cherished  in  modern  thought.  A  notable  exception  is 
made  of  John  Winthrop,  who  for  prudential  reasons  is  usu 
ally  let  off  mildly,  with  extenuating  particulars,  which  leave 
little  to  blame  in  his  truly  heroic  record.  There  have  been, 
it  is  true,  some  noble  lawyers  who  have  honestly  argued 

1  Eurip.  Phoen.,  534 ;  Freeman's  Hist,  of  the  Norman  Conquest,  i. 
290. 


1630]         FIRST   CHARTER   OF   MASSACHUSETTS  67 

that  the  charter  ought  never  to  have  come  to  America,  and 
that  it  was  not  constructed  for  the  use  it  was  put  to,  and 
it  would  seem  to  follow  from  their  position  that  what  was 
done  in  America  under  the  charter  was  illegal  and  unwar 
ranted. 

Fortunately,  we  are  not  driven  to  these  painful  conclusions. 
The  action  of  the  Puritans  in  this  matter  has  been  fully  vin 
dicated  by  careful  students  who  have  given  their  lives  to  the 
investigation  of  charter  rights.1  Chief  Justice  Joel  Parker, 
Royall  Professor  of  Law  in  Harvard  University,  said,  Febru 
ary  9,  1869,  "The  grantees  professed,  in  all  they  did,  to  act 
under  the  charter,  and,  as  they  contended,  according  to  the 
charter.  We  are  to  look  to  the  terms  of  the  charter,  there 
fore,  and  to  a  sound  construction  of  its  provisions,  to  ascer 
tain  what  rights  of  legislation,  religious  or  otherwise,  were 
possessed  by  the  grantees. 

"  From  a  careful  examination  of  it,  I  have  no  hesitation  in 
maintaining  five  propositions  in  relation  to  it.  [We  quote 
only  three  of  them.] 

"  i.  The  charter  (bearing  date  March  4,  1629)  is  not,  and 
was  not,  intended  to  be  an  act  for  the  incorporation  of  a  trad 
ing  or  merchants'  company  merely.  But  it  was  a  grant 
which  contemplated  the  settlement  of  a  colony,  with  power 
in  the  incorporated  company  to  govern  that  colony. 

"  2.  The  charter  authorized  the  establishment  of  the  gov 
ernment  of  the  colony  within  the  limits  of  the  territory  to  be 
governed,  as  was  done  by  the  vote  to  transfer  the  charter  and 
government. 

"  3.  The  charter  gave  ample  powers  of  legislation  and  of 
government  for  the  plantation  or  colony,  including  power  to 
legislate  on  religious  subjects,  in  the  manner  in  which  the 

1  The  considerations  by  the  Supreme  Court  of  Massachusetts  of 
charter  rights  have  special  interest.  (Commonwealth  v.  Roxbury,  9 
Gray,  480,  481.)  The  notes  of  Chief  Justice  Gray,  respecting  the 
removal  of  the  charter  from  England,  are  particularly  valuable  and 
conclusive  in  favor  of  the  right  of  transfer.  (Ib.,  510,  511  ;  Quincy's 
Hist,  of  Boston,  329-339,  notes.) 


68  THOMAS   DUDLEY  [CH.  vn 

grantees  and  their  associates  claimed  and  exercised  the  legis 
lative  power."  l 

This  removal  of  the  charter  was  sanctioned  at  the  time 
by  the  best  legal  advice ;  the  Privy  Council  did  not  question 
the  lawfulness  of  the  act  of  transfer ;  it  was  approved  by  the 
attorney-general.  The  chief  justices  Rainsford  and  North 
mention  the  "  charter  as  making  the  adventurers  a  corpora 
tion  upon  the  place."  Chief  Justice  Parker  has  shown  that 
it  was  a  practical  impossibility  to  have  carried  on  the  govern 
ment  of  the  colony  with  the  charter  and  General  Court  in 
England ;  that  the  theory  that  such  was  the  original  inten 
tion  is  reduced  to  an  absurdity  by  a  construction  of  all  the 
parts  of  the  charter  together.  Since  no  place  was  mentioned, 
why  was  not  Boston,  in  English  America,  more  fitting  than 
London  in  England,  and  why  was  not  the  choice  left  to  the 
grantees  ?  We  say  it  was  !  Besides,  similar  patents  were 
granted  to  colonies  later,  showing  that  the  government  found 
nothing  to  complain  of  in  this  precedent  when  afterwards  it 
granted  charters  to  Rhode  Island  and  Connecticut,  with  full 
liberty  to  transport  them,  and  to  other  colonies  as  well.  No, 
the  ruts  of  condemnation  are  easy  to  travel,  for  those  who 
seek  them,  but  they  are  not  profitable  unless  there  is  more 
substantial  cause.  We  are  fortunately  not  left  to  the  inter 
pretations  of  the  charter  by  lawyers  and  historians,  in  the 
decision  of  this  much-controverted  matter,  because  recently 
discovered  original  documents  quite  conclusively  close  the 
argument.  Winthrop,  in  a  paper  which  came  to  light  in 

1  Massachusetts  and  its  Early  History,  Lowell  Institute  Lectures, 
1869,  364-384- 

Mr.  James  Bryce,  in  speaking  of  the  authority  contained  in  the  char 
ters  of  Massachusetts,  says  :  "  We  have  therefore  ...  in  the  charter 
of  1628-29,  as  well  as  in  that  of  1691,  the  essential  and  capital  charac 
teristic  of  a  rigid  or  supreme  constitution,  —  viz.,  a  frame  of  government 
established  by  a  superior  authority,  creating  a  subordinate  law-making 
body,  which  can  do  everything  except  violate  the  terms  and  transcend 
the  powers  of  the  instrument  to  which  it  owes  its  own  existence.  .  .  . 
The  trading  company  grows  into  a  colony,  and  the  colony  into  a  state.'* 
(The  Amer.  Commonwealth,  i.  413-415.) 


1630]         FIRST   CHARTER   OF   MASSACHUSETTS  69 

1 860,  and  which  shows  that  the  removal  was  expected  by  the 
British  government,  says :  "  The  last  clause  (in  the  charter)  is 
for  the  governing  of  inhabitants  within  the  plantation.  For 
it  being  the  manner  for  such  as  procured  patents  for  Virginia, 
Bermudas,  and  the  West  Indies,  to  keep  the  chief  govern 
ment  in  the  hands  of  the  company  residing  in  England  (and 
so  this  was  intended  and  with  much  difficulty  we  got  it  ab 
scinded)."  This  reveals  to  us  the  reason  why  the  place  of 
administering  the  charter  is  not  mentioned  in  it.  It  seems 
to  settle  the  controversy.1 

The  removal  was  unique  at  the  start  no  doubt,  but  from  it 
follow  such  important  and  necessary  consequences  that  it 
now  really  seems  to  have  been  the  natural  and  inevitable 
course  that  the  charter  and  the  governor  and  company  should 
come  together,  and  be  inseparable  until  the  foundation  of 
this  nation  was  laid  upon  bed-rock  broad  enough  to  support 
the  superstructure,  still  rising  under  the  guidance  of  succeed 
ing  generations  into  higher  civilization,  giving  no  indication 
that  the  principles  cherished  by  the  Puritans  in  the  beginning 
are  not  destined  to  be  sufficient. 

The  import  of  the  removal  of  the  charter  was  vastly  aug 
mented  by  two  things  which  may  or  may  not  have  been 
foreseen  by  the  Puritans.  The  first  was  the  distance  of 
three  thousand  miles,  with  nothing  more  swift  of  transit  than 
slow  sailing-vessels,  requiring  from  six  weeks  to  three  months 
for  the  passage;  the  second  was  the  Puritan  revolution  at 
home,  which  demanded  the  attention  of  the  government  so 
completely  that  it  had  no  time  to  give  thought  to  its  inde 
pendent  and  unrestrained  child  in  America. 

These  two  circumstances  contributed  to  make  the  oth 
erwise  unimportant  transit  of  the  charter  really  the  first 
declaration  of  independence  from  British  supremacy.  This 
severance  began  at  the  very  start,  as  the  Arbella  moved 
out  of  Southampton  Water  with  the  charter,  and  culminated 
on  the  4th  of  July,  1776,  in  the  American  Revolution. 

1  Life  and  Letters  of  John  Winthrop,  ii.  443 ;  George  E.  Ellis's  Puri 
tan  Age,  47. 


70  THOMAS   DUDLEY  [CH.  vil 

Perhaps  we  can  never  overestimate  the  great  importance, 
in  this  wonderful  emigration,  of  the  quality  of  the  most 
prominent  men  among  the  undertakers.  They  were  men  of 
mark  at  home,  men  successful  in  life,  with  ample  possessions, 
persons  of  high  social  standing,  the  natural  leaders  of  society, 
possessing  strong  personal  influence.  And  they  not  only 
drew  a  following  after  themselves  ;  they  also  controlled  and 
guided  it  in  the  right  way.  They  never,  in  the  first  genera 
tion  at  least,  lost  their  influence  until  the  Puritan  common 
wealth  was  firmly  knit  together,  and  had  entered  upon  its 
never-ending  career  of  usefulness. 

It  must  be  evident  to  all  persons  who  study  the  records, 
that  such  emigrants  never  would  have  abandoned  home  and 
friends  and  native  land  and  gone  into  the  wilderness,  unless 
they  had  been  assured  beyond  a  doubt  that  the  charter  and 
the  government  would  go  with  them,  and  that  it  would  be 
lawful  in  all  respects.  They  were  not  going  for  trade  or  for 
travel;  they  and  their  children  were  seeking  a  permanent 
home  in  America:  the  charter  must  secure  their  rights,  it 
must  be  legal,  it  must  have  a  legal  transfer.  Without  all 
this,  there  was  no  safety  in  the  enterprise ;  it  would  be  unut 
terable  risk  without  hope.  They  watched  every  point  of 
legal  technicality,  and  did  not  venture  until  they  felt  abso 
lutely  secure.  Without  this  assurance  the  undertaking  could 
have  no  interest  for  them. 

But  their  own  records  are  the  best  evidence  of  their  pro 
found  solicitude.  The  record  of  the  General  Court  for  the 
28th  of  July,  1629,  is  as  follows,  viz. :  — 

"  And  lastly,  Mr.  Governor  read  certain  propositions  con 
ceived  by  himself,  viz.,  that  for  the  advancement  of  the 
plantation,  the  inducing  and  encouraging  persons  of  worth 
and  quality  to  transport  themselves  and  families  thither,  and 
for  other  weighty  reasons  therein  contained,  to  transfer  the 
government  of  the  plantation  to  those  that  shall  inhabit 
there,  and  not  to  continue  the  same  in  subordination  to  the 
company  here,  as  now  it  is.  This  business  occasioned  some 
debate ;  but  by  reason  of  the  great  many  and  considerable 


1630]        FIRST   CHARTER   OF   MASSACHUSETTS  71 

consequences  thereupon  depending,  it  was  not  now  resolved 
upon  ;  but  those  present  are  desired  privately  and  seriously 
to  consider  hereof,  and  to  set  down  their  particular  reasons 
in  writing  pro  and  con,  and  to  produce  the  same  at  the  next 
General  Court ;  where  they  being  reduced  to  heads,  and 
maturely  considered  of,  the  company  may  then  proceed  to 
a  final  resolution  thereon ;  and  in  the  mean  time  they  are 
desired  to  carry  this  business  secretly,  that  the  same  be  not 
divulged."1 

It  may  be  that  this  injunction  of  secrecy  is  one  of  the  little 
things  that  seem  to  the  enemies  of  the  Puritans  so  Jesuitical, 
and  indicate  that  they  meant  to  avoid  and  cheat  the  spotless 
and  credulous  Char-les  I.  and  his  unsuspecting  ministers. 
But  it  was  really  only  a  matter  of  business  prudence,  usual 
in  all  corporations,  not  to  divulge  vital  matters  until  they  are 
matured  and  the  parties  know  their  own  minds.  It  is  notable 
that  the  secrecy  is  only  "  in  the  mean  time  "  of  one  month, 
until  they  can  debate  and  deliberate  among  themselves. 

Less  than  one  month  after  the  above  meeting,  viz., 
August  26,  1629,  the  following  agreement  was  entered  into 
at  Cambridge,  in  England,  signed  by  only  one  person  who 
was  present  at  the  General  Court  when  the  subject  was  first 
introduced,  viz.,  Increase  Nowell.  Another  interesting  and 
significant  fact  is  that  the  names  of  Governor  Winthrop  and 
Governor  Dudley  appear  here,  and  not  in  the  General  Court 
record  until  the  September  and  October  following.  The 
real  Moses  and  Joshua  who  were  to  lead  the  colony  joined 
it  upon  express  condition,  legal  and  sure  beyond  question, 
that  the  charter,  the  very  palladium  of  liberty  and  of  safety, 
was  to  go  with  them  legally.  Every  precaution  was  taken  to 
be  sure  that  they  were  right.  They  could  not  afford,  as  we 
have  said,  to  be  wrong ;  they  had  too  much  at  stake.  Per 
haps  persons  who  are  so  sensitive  about  the  honor  of  the 
Puritans  in  this  matter  think  that  they  ought  to  have  been 
frank,  and  asked  Charles  I.  or  his  ministers  openly  if  it  was 
intended  that  the  General  Court  and  charter  were  to  be  taken 
1  Mass.  Col.  Rec.,  i.  49. 


72  THOMAS   DUDLEY  [CH.  vn 

to  Massachusetts.  Not  one  of  those  men,  if  a  charter  were 
granted  to  them  to-day,  would  ask  the  government  what 
they  meant  when  they  issued  it ;  and  if  they  did,  the  answer 
would  have  no  value.  They  would  seek  the  best  counsel  as 
to  its  meaning  and  wait  the  order  of  the  courts,  which  have 
the  final  authority  to  decide  these  matters.  And  that  was 
exactly  what  the  Puritans  did,  as  appears  by  the  record,  only, 
as  is  now  known,  they  "had  abscinded  from  the  charter" 
the  usual  statement  of  administration  in  England,  and  were 
therefore  safe  in  that  respect.1 

The  true  copy  of  the  Agreement  at  Cambridge,  August  26, 
1629,  is  as  follows  :  "  Upon  due  consideration  of  the  state  of 
the  plantation  now  in  hand  for  New  England,  wherein  we, 
whose  names  are  hereunto  subscribed,  have  engaged  our 
selves,  and  having  weighed  the  greatness  of  the  work  in  re 
gard  of  the  consequence,  God's  glory  and  the  Church's  good ; 
as  also  in  regard  of  the  difficulties  and  discouragements  which 
in  all  probabilities  must  be  forecast  upon  the  prosecution  of 
this  business  ;  considering  withal  that  this  whole  adventure 
grows  upon  the  joint  confidence  we  have  in  each  other's 
fidelity  and  resolution  herein,  so  as  no  man  of  us  would  have 
adventured  it  without  assurance  of  the  rest :  now,  for  the 
better  encouragement  of  ourselves  and  others  that  shall  join 
with  us  in  this  action,  and  to  the  end  that  every  man  may 
without  scruple  dispose  of  his  estate  and  affairs  as  may  best 
fit  his  preparation  for  this  voyage  ;  it  is  fully  and  faithfully 
agreed  amongst  us,  and  every  one  of  us  doth  hereby  freely 
and  sincerely  promise  and  bind  himself,  in  the  word  of  a 
Christian,  and  in  the  presence  of  God,  who  is  the  searcher 
of  all  hearts,  that  we  will  so  really  endeavor  the  prosecution 
of  this  work,  as  by  God's  assistance,  we  will  be  ready  in  our 
persons,  and  with  such  of  our  several  families  as  are  to  go 
with  us,  and  such  provision  as  we  are  able  conveniently  to 
furnish  ourselves  withal,  to  embark  for  the  said  plantation 
by  the  first  of  March  next,  at  such  port  or  ports  of  this  land 
as  shall  be  agreed  upon  by  the  company,  to  the  end  to  pass 
1  John  Winthrop's  Life  and  Letters,  ii.  443. 


1630]        FIRST   CHARTER   OF   MASSACHUSETTS  73 

the  seas  (under  God's  protection),  to  inhabit  and  continue 
in  New  England  :  provided  always,  that  before  the  last  of 
September  next,  the  whole  government,  together  with  the 
patent  for  the  said  plantation,  be  first,  by  an  order  of  Court, 
legally  transferred  and  established  to  remain  with  us  and 
others  which  shall  inhabit  upon  the  said  plantation :  and 
provided  also,  that  if  any  shall  be  hindered  by  such  just  and 
inevitable  let  or  other  cause,  to  be  allowed  by  three  parts  of 
four  of  these  whose  names  are  hereunto  subscribed,  then 
such  persons,  for  such  times  and  during  such  lets,  to  be 
discharged  of  this  bond.  And  we  do  further  promise,  every 
one  for  himself,  that  shall  fail  to  be  ready  through  his  own 
default  by  the  day  appointed,  to  pay  for  every  day's  default 
the  sum  of  ^3,  to  the  use  of  the  rest  of  the  company  who 
shall  be  ready  by  the  same  day  and  time.  This  was  done 
by  order  of  Court,  the  2Qth  of  August,  1629. 

RICHARD  SALTONSTALL,        THOMAS  SHARPE, 
THOMAS  DUDLEY,  INCREASE  NOWELL, 

WILLIAM  VASSALI,  JOHN  WINTHROP, 

NICHOLAS  WEST,  WILLIAM  PINCHON, 

ISAAC  JOHNSON,  KELLAM  BROWNE, 

JOHN  HUMFREY,  WILLIAM  CoLBRON."1 

It  will  be  noticed  that  they  assert  that  they  have  "  weighed 
the  greatness  of  the  work  in  regard  of  the  consequence,  .  .  . 
as  also  in  regard  of  the  difficulties,"  and  that  they  make 
this  proviso,  upon  which  condition  all  their  future  course 
depends  :  "  Provided  always  that  before  the  last  of  Septem 
ber  next,  the  whole  government,  together  with  the  patent 
for  the  said  plantation,  be  first,  by  an  order  of  Court,  legally 
transferred  and  established  to  remain  with  us  and  others 
which  shall  inhabit  upon  the. said  plantation."  Governor 
Dudley,  who  may  have  written  this  agreement  (it  is  quite 
like  his  work),  speaks  kindly  and  gratefully  of  the  British 

1  Young's  Chron.,  281,  282.  There  are  no  ministers  among  these 
names  nor  at  the  meetings  of  assistants;  they  are  lawyers,  men  of 
affairs,  statesmen. 


74  THOMAS   DUDLEY  [CH.  vn 

government  in  his  letter  to  the  Countess  of  Lincoln  :  "  But 
we  do  continue  to  pray  daily  for  our  sovereign  lord  the  king, 
the  queen,  the  prince,  the  royal  blood,  the  council,  and  whole 
state,  as  duty  binds  us  to  do,  and  reason  persuades  others  to 
believe.  For  how  ungodly  and  unthankful  should  we  be,  if 
we  should  not  thus  do,  who  came  hither  by  virtue  of  his 
Majesty's  letters  patent,  and  under  his  gracious  protection; 
under  which  shelter  we  hope  to  live  safely." 1 

The  vote  of  the  General  Court  upon  the  question  of  the 
transfer  of  the  charter  is  instructive,  and  was  three  days 
after  the  above  Agreement,  August  29,  1629,  as  follows  :  — 

"  As  many  of  you  as  desire  to  have  the  patent  and  the 
government  of  the  plantation  to  be  transferred  to  New  Eng 
land,  so  as  it  may  be  done  legally,  hold  up  your  hands :  so 
many  as  will  not,  hold  up  your  hands. 

"  Where  by  erection  of  hands,  it  appeared  by  the  general 
consent  of  the  company,  that  the  government  and  patent 
should  be  settled  in  New  England,  and  accordingly  an  order 
to  be  drawn  up."  2 

At  a  General  Court,  September  29,  1629,  "it  was  pro 
pounded  that  a  committee  should  be  appointed  to  prepare 
the  business ;  to  take  advice  of  learned  counsel  whether  the 
same  (the  transferring  of  the  charter)  may  be  legally  done 
or  no ;  by  what  way  or  means  the  same  may  be  done,  to 
correspond  with,  and  not  to  prejudice  the  government  here 
[in  its  action,  not  in  the  mind  of  the  British  government] ; 
to  consider  of  the  time  when  it  will  be  fit  to  do  it."  3 

The  well-established  characters  of  John  Winthrop,  Isaac 
Johnson,  Richard  Saltonstall,  Thomas  Dudley,  and  John 
Humphrey  are  a  guaranty  of  the  good  faith  and  integrity  of 
their  action,  and  of  their  conviction  at  least  that  they  were 
acting  wisely  and  honestly,  and  with  no  purpose  to  take 
advantage  of,  or  deceive,  the  English  government.  Dudley 
appears  nowhere  in  the  record  until  October  15,  1629,  al 
most  two  months  after  the  vote  was  passed  that  the  patent 
and  government  should  be  settled  in  New  England ;  but  he 

1  Young's  Chron.,  331.        2  Mass.  Col.  Rec.,  i.  51.        8  Ib.,  i.  52. 


1630]  TRANSFER   OF   FIRST   CHARTER  75 

had  signed  the  Cambridge  Agreement  August  26,  with  the 
condition  for  removal  of  charter  in  it.  This  does  not  exon 
erate  him  if  there  was  a  wrong  done  in  that  transfer.  He 
was  a  party  to  it.  But  there  was  no  wrong  in  it,  the  opin 
ions  of  great  and  wise  men  to  the  contrary  notwithstanding. 

The  Arbella,  after  an  unusually  rough  voyage,  arrived 
safely  off  Salem  harbor,  Mass.,  June  22,  1630,  with  the 
Governor  and  Company  of  Massachusetts  Bay  and  the  first 
charter,  about  to  enter  upon  a  life  in  the  New  World,  the 
results  of  which  were  far  to  transcend  any  conception  they 
ever  entertained  of  it  in  their  most  visionary  moments. 

It  has  not  seemed  needful  at  every  mention  of  events  to 
call  attention  to  Dudley's  part  in  them,  it  being  always  un 
derstood  that  he  is  a  central  figure  in  all  that  is  presented 
here,  and  that  in  every  one  of  the  stirring  incidents  men 
tioned  he  was  a  principal  actor,  although  not  named.  A 
man  of  strong  sensibility  and  quick  feeling,  no  one  of  that 
throng  left  Old  England  with  a  more  reluctant  step,  or  yet 
with  a  firmer  purpose  to  give  up  all  questions  of  personal 
comfort  and  selfish  considerations,  to  make  way  for  the  cause 
of  truth,  for  the  blessing  of  liberty  to  the  church,  to  the 
state,  and  to  posterity. 

If  you  would  learn  how  devoted  he  was  to  this  enterprise 
and  to  the  cause  which  dominated  it,  follow  him  through 
the  records  of  the  Colony  of  Massachusetts  Bay  during  the 
twenty-three  years  of  life  which  was  granted  to  him  here, 
and  note  that  he  was  present  at  every  session  but  one,  when 
his  own  cause  was  in  hearing,  both  of  the  General  Court 
and  of  the  Court  of  Assistants,  until  his  final  sickness  and 
disability  in  1653,  and  that  therefore  there  is  not  a  recorded 
act,  great  or  small,  which  does  not  bear  his  illustrious  im 
print.  If  there  was  any  glory  or  shame,  or  praise  or  blame, 
he  shared  it  all,  in  the  beginning  of  Massachusetts,  New 
England,  and  the  United  States.1 

1  Mr.  Savage,  in  his  notes  to  Winthrop,  i.  *5i,  has  well  said  of 
Dudley,  that  "  his  history  must  be  embodied  in  that  of  his  country." 


CHAPTER  VIII 

THE  arrival  of  those  emigrants  in  June,  1630,  was  a  great 
event  in  human  history.  They  settled  by  their  numbers  and 
quality,  as  well  as  by  their  energy  and  enterprise,  that  the 
undertaking  was  not  to  be  an  uncertain  experiment  of  adven 
turers.  A  fixed  purpose  was  at  the  heart  of  every  one  of 
them  to  make  their  homes  in  this  wilderness,  and  devote 
their  lives  to  the  setting  up  of  Christ's  kingdom,  and  to  the 
construction  of  a  pure  and  noble  state. 

It  was  natural  that  these  heroic  men  should  then  recall 
the  first  establishment  of  Christianity  in  Macedonia,  on  the 
very  spot  where,  a  century  before  it  was  planted,  the  fate 
of  the  world  had  been  decided  ; 1  that  they  should  remem 
ber  "  a  man  of  Macedonia,  who  came  to  plead  the  spir 
itual  wants  of  his  country,"  and  that  they  should  write  on 
the  colonial  seal,  and  stamp  on  every  colonial  act,  that  per 
petual  cry  of  heathendom,  "Come  over  and  help  us."  Did 
they  call  to  mind  the  mission  of  Augustine  to  heathen  Eng 
land  in  6 1 6,  and  the  words  of  Gregory  to  him  respecting  his 
treatment  of  pagans,  when  he  said  that  "  for  hard  and  rough 
minds  it  is  impossible  to  cut  away  abruptly  all  their  old 
customs,  because  he  who  wishes  to  reach  the  highest  place 
must  ascend  by  steps,  and  not  by  jumps."  This  was  a  hu 
mane  rule  to  guide  them  in  their  treatment  of  Indians,  which, 
in  any  event,  they  followed.  As  they  were  far  removed  from 
their  English  home  in  the  prosecution  of  their  Christian 
mission,  they  might  have  reflected  that  that  very  English 
church  and  state  which  had  driven  them  forth  had  arisen 

1  See  Company's  Humble  Request,  April  7, 1630,  already  mentioned. 
Philippi  in  Macedonia  was  the  scene  of  the  decisive  battle  in  which 
Brutus  and  Cassius  were  defeated  by  Augustus  and  Antony,  B.  c.  42. 


1630]  SUFFERINGS   OF   THE   PLANTERS  77 

by  degrees  from  the  beginnings  of  Augustine  at  Canterbury, 
the  first  English  Christian  city.  It  is  notable  that,  in  both 
England  and  America,  Christianity  had  been  planted  before 
the  arrival  of  the  masterful  spirits  who  were  destined  to 
achieve  its  first  real  conquests.  Dudley,  in  his  letter  to  the 
Countess  of  Lincoln,  in  1631,  sends  forth  the  same  Macedo 
nian  cry  in  behalf  of  the  colonists  themselves  which  they 
at  first  had  put  into  the  mouths  of  the  Indians.  He  says 
that,  "  if  there  be  any  (in  England)  endued  with  grace  and 
furnished  with  means  to  feed  themselves  and  theirs  for 
eighteen  months,  and  to  build  and  plant,  let  them  come  over 
into  our  Macedonia  and  help  us,  and  not  spend  themselves 
and  their  estates  in  a  less  profitable  employment." 1 

Dudley  informs  the  Countess  of  Lincoln  that  "  our  four 
ships  which  set  out  in  April  arrived  here  in  June  and  July, 
where  we  found  the  colony  in  a  sad  and  unexpected  condi 
tion,  above  eighty  of  them  being  dead  the  winter  before,  and 
many  of  those  alive  weak  and  sick ;  all  the  corn  and  bread 
amongst  them  all  hardly  sufficient  to  feed  them  a  fortnight, 
insomuch  that  the  remainder  of  a  hundred  and  eighty  ser 
vants  we  had  the  two  years  before  sent  over,  coming  to 
us  for  victuals  to  sustain  them,  we  found  ourselves  wholly 
unable  to  feed  them,  by  reason  that  the  provisions  shipped 
for  them  were  taken  out  of  the  ship  they  were  put  in,  and 
they  who  were  trusted  to  ship  them  in  another  failed  us  and 
left  them  behind ;  whereupon  necessity  enforced  us,  to  our 
extreme  loss,  to  give  them  all  liberty,  who  had  cost  us  about 
£16  or  ,£20  a  person,  furnishing  and  sending  over. 

"  But  bearing  these  things  as  we  might,  we  began  to  con 
sult  of  the  place  of  our  sitting  down ;  for  Salem,  where  we 
landed,  pleased  us  not."  2 

It  was  most  natural  and  reasonable  that  Salem  should  not 
please  them,  for  eighty  persons  out  of  the  little  colony  had 
died  there  the  previous  winter ;  others  were  sick  ;  the  terror 
of  famine  was  in  their  minds,  and  all  were  sad  and  miserable. 

1  Young's  Chron.  325 ;  see,  also,  Appendix  A,  this  volume. 
Mb.,  31 1. 


78  THOMAS   DUDLEY  [CH.  vm 

Sickness  began  to  spread,  and  during  that  autumn  Dudley 
informs  us  that  two  hundred 'of  the  recent  emigrants  had 
fallen  victims  to  diseases  due  largely,,  no  doubt,  to  exposure 
and  unaccustomed  hardships. 

The  governor  went,  after  a  few  days  of  rest,  with  a  num 
ber  of  persons,  in  search  of  a  more  satisfactory  abode  and 
suitable  place  for  a  capital  town.1 

Our  acquaintance  with  Dudley  in  England  assures  us  that 
he  was  active  at  this  important  juncture-.  He  was  able, 
thoroughly  a  business  man,  eminently  qualified  to  be  a  leader 
in  the  moments  of  selection,  which  were  of  great  importance 
in  their  consequences.  He  was  not  an  idle  spectator,  but 
an  efficient  actor.  He  was  called,  at  the  close  of  his  career, 
a  "pillar"  to  support  state,  church,  and  society.  He  and 
Governor  Winthrop  were  both  men  of  decided  convictions, 
as  competent  men  always  are,  for  the  experience  of  life 
has  taught  them  safely  to  rely  upon  their  judgments  carefully 
made  up. 

Dudley  proceeds  to  tell  us  that,  in  this  very  important  ex 
ploration  for  a  place  to  settle,  "  some  were  sent  to  the  Bay," 
that  is,  Boston  harbor,  "  to  search  up  the  rivers  for  a  conven 
ient  place ;  who,  upon  their  return,  reported  to  have  found 
a  good  place  upon  Mistick,  but  some  other  of  us,  seconding 
these  ;  "  that  is  to  say,  following  or  supplementing  these,  to 
determine  whether  "to  approve  or  dislike  of  their  judgment,. 
we  found  a  place  [that]  liked  us  better,  three  leagues  up 
Charles  river,"  probably  Cambridge.2  It  appears  from  this 
that  two  expeditions  went  on  these  journeys  of  inquiry,  and 
that  Winthrop  led  the  first  and  Dudley  the  second;  that 
neither  selection  was  satisfactory  to  both  leaders,  and  that 
they  settled  on  Charlestown.  as  a  compromise.  The  next 
year  the  stanch  and  still  unconvinced  governors  were  each 
dwelling  in  his  own  house  on  the  very  spot  of  his  own  first 
choice,  —  the  one  at  Mistick,  the  other  at  Newtown  (Cam 
bridge).  The  name  Mistick  was  changed  in  1649  to  Maiden. 

Winthrop  and  several  of  the  patentees  (including  Dudley) 
1  Prince,  308.  2  Young's  Chron.,  312,  note. 


1 630]  REMOVAL   TO   CHARLESTOWN  79 

"dwelt  in  the  Great  House,  which  was  last  year  built  in  this 
town  [Charlestown]  by  Mr.  Graves  [Thomas  Graves,  engi 
neer],  and  the  rest  of  their  servants."  1  This  Great  House 
became  the  public  meeting-house  of  Charlestown  from  1633 
until  1636,  and  was  afterwards  a  tavern  or  ordinary,  and 
in  1711  was  called  the  "Great  Tavern."  It  stood  wholly  in 
the  Square,  opposite  the  lane  by  the  "Mansion  House." 
It  was  probably  destroyed  when  the  town  was  burnt  by  the 
British,  June  17,  I775.2 

This  removal  to  Charlestown  was  on  July  12,  i63O.3 
Their  place  of  assembling  for  divine  worship  was  a  spreading 
tree,  since  the  "  Great  House  "  would  not  contain  all,  or 
indeed  a  small  part,  of  the  emigrants.4 

It  must  have  been  a  picturesque  scene  at  the  hour  of  wor 
ship.  The  learned  divines,  trained  at  the  great  universities 
of  England,  exiles,  proclaiming  beneath  a  canopy  of  green 
the  unsearchable  riches  of  Christ  to  a  most  notable  company 
of  seed  sowers.  There  sat  in  the  foreground,  about  the  min 
isters,  Governor  Winthrop,  Sir  Richard  Saltonstall,  Isaac 
Johnson,  Thomas  Dudley,  Roger  Ludlow,  Increase  Nowell, 
William  Pynchon,  Simon  Bradstreet,  and  their  families; 
while  in  groups  down  the  slope  of  the  hill  were  scattered 
heroic  people,  whose  hearts  were  full  of  the  missionary  spirit, 
and  instinct  with  the  purpose  of  making  the  pagan  wilder 
ness  before  them  blossom  as  the  rose,  under  the  light  and 
power  of  Christian  civilization.  There  lay  spread  out  before 
them  the  whole  smiling  tract  of  Massachusetts  Bay,  with  its 
lovely  islands  in  the  midst,  and  its  shining  shores  glorious 
with  adornment  of  primeval  forest,  as  yet  undisturbed  by 
the  violence  of  man.  Trimountain,  now  Boston,  towered 
on  the  right,  while  behind  them  rose  a  gentle  stretch  of  hill, 
where,  a  little  more  than  a  century  later,  their  descendants 
would  struggle  with  England,  in  one  of  the  most  important 
battles  in  human  history,  to  complete  that  severance  from, 

1  Young's  Chron.,  378.  2  Ib.,  375,  note. 

8  Drake's  Antiq.  of  Boston,  92. 

4  J.  B.  Moore's  Memoirs  of  Amer.  Governors,  245. 


8o  THOMAS   DUDLEY  [CH.  vm 

and  independence  of,  their  native  land,  which  they  had  in 
augurated  when  they  brought  away  the  first  charter  in  the 
Arbella.  How  much  of  interest  to  us  and  to  humanity 
clustered  about  this  little  hillock  and  these  devout  and  ear 
nest  servants  of  God  ! 

The  situation  of  these  people  was  dismal  in  the  extreme. 
Hunger,  and  not  improbable  starvation,  were  impending  as 
the  result  of  want  of  proper  precaution  in  shipping  sufficient 
provisions  upon  their  departure  from  England ;  the  water  of 
Charlestown  had  proven  bad  and  unhealthy,  because  they 
would  only  use  running  water ;  later  the  water  of  that  place 
was  found  to  be  good  and  wholesome.  Fever  and  various 
maladies  were  rapidly  reducing  their  numbers.  The  devout 
leaders,  in  their  deep  and  exceeding  need,  doubtless  remem 
bered  that  "  if  any  of  you  lack  wisdom,  let  him  ask  of  God, 
that  giveth  to  all  men  liberally  and  upbraideth  not ;  and  it 
shall  be  given  him."  And  they  set  apart  the  3Oth  of  July, 
1630,  as  a  day  of  fasting  and  prayer. 

It  is  uncertain  whether  they  were  gathered  under  the 
same  wide-spreading  branches  of  a  tree,  or  were  within  the 
walls  of  the  "  Great  House  "  of  the  colony,  constructed  for 
a  residence,  for  defense,  storage,  and  public  gatherings  not 
over-large.  But  here  and  now,  at  the  conclusion  of  the 
religious  exercises,  Governor  Winthrop,  Deputy  Governor 
Dudley,  Isaac  Johnson,  and  John  Wilson,  with  many  others, 
both  men  and  women,  put  their  names  to  the  following  cove 
nant  :  — 

"  In  the  name  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  and  in  Obedience 
to  His  holy  will  and  Divine  Ordinance,  — 

"  We  whose  names  are  hereunder  written,  being  by  His 
most  wise  and  good  Providence  brought  together  into  this 
part  of  America  in  the  Bay  of  Massachusetts,  and  desirous 
to  unite  ourselves  into  one  congregation  or  Church,  under 
the  Lord  Jesus  Christ  our  Head,  in  such  sort  as  becometh 
all  those  whom  He  hath  Redeemed  and  Sanctified  to  Him 
self,  do  hereby  solemnly  and  religiously  (as  in  His  most  holy 
Presence)  Promise  and  bind  ourselves  to  walk  in  all  our  ways 


1630]  INDEPENDENT   CHURCH  81 

according  to  the  Rule  of  the  Gospel,  and  in  all  sincere  Con 
formity  to  His  holy  Ordinances,  and  in  mutual  love  and 
respect  each  to  other,  so  near  as  God  shall  give  us  grace."  l 

Winthrop  relates  that  on  the  2/th  of  August,  1630,  they 
completed  their  church  organization,  afterwards  the  First 
Church  of  Boston.  He  says  :  "  We  of  the  congregation 
kept  a  fast,  and  chose  Mr.  Wilson  our  teacher,  and  Mr. 
Nowell  an  elder,  and  Mr.  Gager  and  Mr.  Aspinwall,  deacons. 
We  used  imposition  of  hands,  but  with  this  protestation  by 
all,  that  it  was  only  a  sign  of  election  and  confirmation,  not 
of  any  intent  that  Mr.  Wilson  should  renounce  his  ministry 
he  received  in  England." 

This  mode  of  church  institution  was  not  in  accord  with 
the  Church  of  England.  It  was  like  the  Separatist  method 
in  the  Plymouth  Colony.  The  members  pledged  Conformity 
to  Christ,  and  not  to  the  Church  of  England.  The  earlier 
church  at  Salem  was  impressed  with  the  same  independency, 
and  doubtless  suggested  a  model  at  this  time. 

Already,  at  Salem,  the  disuse  of  the  "  Common  Prayer  and 
of  other  ceremonies  "  had  alienated  the  excellent  brothers 
John  and  Samuel  Browne,  who  were  more  deeply  attached 
to  the  Church  of  England,  and  Governor  Endicott  had  sent 
them  back  to  England,  because  they  were  not  in  harmony 
and  fellowship  in  New  England. 

Doyle  says :  "  If  the  colony  was  to  become  what  its  pro 
moters  intended,  unity,  not  merely  of  religious  belief,  but 
of  ritual  and  of  ecclesiastical  discipline,  was,  at  least  for  the 
present,  a  needful  condition  of  existence.  We  must  not 
condemn  the  banishment  of  the  Brownes  unless  we  are  pre 
pared  to  say  that  it  would  have  been  better  for  the  world  if 
the  Puritan  colony  of  Massachusetts  had  never  existed."2 

The  church  now  formed  set  aside  the  liturgy,  prayers 
"read  from  a  book,"  all  church  days  except  the  Sabbath, 

1  George  E.  Ellis's  Puritan  Age  in  Massachusetts,  58 ;  Drake's  Hist. 
Boston,  93;  Mr.  Foxcroft's  sermon,  August  23,  1730;  Memorial  Hist, 
of  Boston,  i.  114. 

2  English  in  America,  i.  129. 


82  THOMAS   DUDLEY  [CH.  vm 

and  responsive  services.  They  went,  as  they  thought,  di 
rectly  to  the  Scriptures,  and  in  the  exercise  of  right  reason 
believed  themselves  led  and  guided  to  lay  hold  upon  the 
essential  and  fundamental  truth  and  practice  of  the  mother 
church,  divested  of  its  lifeless  and  traditional  customs  and 
teachings. 

"  Hail  to  the  spirit  which  dared 

Trust  its  own  thoughts  before  yet 
Echoed  him  back  by  the  crowd  ! " l 

They  seemed  not  to  have  realized  how  far  they  had  wan 
dered  away  from  the  Church  of  England  until  a  half  century 
later,  when  certain  of  her  members  appeared  in  the  colony 
for  recognition  and  brotherly  consideration,  and  were  not  wel 
comed.  It  is  thought  that  all  the  Congregational  churches 
in  America  have  taken  their  form  of  construction  from  the 
one  under  consideration.  How  many  great  and  lasting  in 
stitutions  came  forth  in  a  few  brief  years  from  the  heaven- 
appointed  hands  of  this  group  of  men,  who  were  moulding, 
like  huge  Titans,  the  destiny  of  men  and  states  ! 

Many  have  thought  that  the  Puritans  were  false  in  their 
expressions  of  regard  for  the  Church  of  England  in  their 
letter  sent  from  the  Arbella  to  the  dear  mother  church. 
They  clung,  however,  sincerely  and  earnestly  to  the  "  Thirty 
Nine  Articles  and  to  the  sacred  Scriptures."  They  must 
have  been  profoundly  impressed  when  they  came  suddenly 
into  the  new  light  and  freedom  of  America,  when  they  lis 
tened  to  the  experience  of  their  brethren  of  Salem  and 
Plymouth,  who  had  thought  out  the  simple  religious  require 
ments  in  this  first  planting.  It  was  not  yet,  and  could  not 
be  for  generations,  a  place  for  cathedral  service,  for  all  the 
pomp  and  splendor  of  the  State  Church  of  England.  The 
times,  the  place,  the  irresistible  conditions  of  environment, 
predetermined  that  the  modes  of  life,  manners,  customs,  and 
worship  as  well,  must  be  reduced  to  the  simplest  form. 
They  must  march  in  the  lightest  armor  to  fight  successfully 
the  battles  before  them. 

1  Matthew  Arnold,  "  Bronte." 


1630]  INDEPENDENT   CHURCH  83 

We  may  be  certain  of  one  thing :  the  world  has  never  seen 
a  group  of  men  more  ingenuous  and  sincere  than  these  lead 
ing  men.  We  have  known  them  before,  and  we  shall  see 
them  in  many  vicissitudes  of  life,  artless  and  open-hearted. 
They  manifested  always  a  depth  of  conviction,  a  profound 
and  constant  sense  of  duty  and  of  regard  to  an  all-seeing 
eye  which  viewed  constantly  every  act  of  their  lives,  and 
would  literally  bring  every  work  and  every  secret  thing  into 
judgment,  so  surely  that  they  became  men  of  deep  integrity, 
penetrated  with  holy  purposes,  and  hypocrites  never.1  They 
did  some  things  which  we  cannot  approve,  but  they  did 
them  in  obedience  to  what  they  found  in  the  very  oracles 
of  God,  read  and  interpreted  from  their  standpoint ;  and  how 
ever  much  we  may  doubt  the  authority  for  the  act  which 
they  read  in  or  out  of  the  sacred  texts,  we  need  not,  nor 
cannot,  question  the  sincerity  or  downright  honesty  of  the 
men. 

The  records  of  Charlestown  state  "that  in  the  mean 
time  they  went  on  with  their  work  for  settling.  In  order 
to  which  they,  with  Mr.  John  Wilson,  one  of  the  ministers, 
did  gather  a  church,  and  chose  the  said  Mr.  Wilson  pastor, 
the  greatest  number  all  this  time  intending  nothing  more 
than  settling  in  this  town ;  for  which  the  governor  ordered 
his  house  to  be  cut  and  framed  here.  But  the  weather  being 
hot,  many  sick,  and  others  faint  after  their  long  voyage, 
people  grew  discontented  for  want  of  water,  who  generally 
notioned  no  water  good  for  a  town  but  running  springs.  .  .  . 
The  death  of  so  many  was  concluded  to  be  much  the  more 
occasion  by  this  want  of  good  water."  2  There  is  a  thrilling 
account  of  the  sufferings  and  sickness  of  these  people  by 
Edward  Johnson,  who  was  one  of  them.3 

It  appears  that  there  was  a  wide  distribution  of  the  people 

1  Men  have  sneered  at  Puritans,  but,  Macaulay  says,  "  no  man  ever 
did  it  who  had  occasion  to  meet  them  in  the  halls  of  debate,  or  cross 
swords  with  them  on  the  field  of  battle." 

2  Young's  Chron.,  399. 

8  See  Mass.  Hist.  Coll.,  xii.  37 ;  Young's  Chron.,  380,  note. 


84  THOMAS   DUDLEY  [CH.  vm 

into  the  country  in  different  directions  in  search  of  good 
water,  resulting  in  many  permanent  settlements. 

We  find  in  the  Charlestown  records  that  "in  the  mean 
time  Blackstone,  dwelling  on  the  other  side  of  Charles  River 
alone,  at  a  place  by  the  Indians  called  Shawmutt,  where  he 
only  had  a  cottage,  at  or  not  far  off  from  the  place  called 
Blackstone's  Point,  he  came  and  acquainted  the  governor  of 
an  excellent  spring  there  ;  withal  inviting  him  and  soliciting 
him  thither ;  .  .  .  whither  also  the  frame  of  the  governor's 
house,  in  preparation  at  this  town  [Charlestown],  was  also 
(to  the  discontent  of  some)  carried,  where  people  began 
to  build  their  houses  against  winter  ;  and  this  place  was 
called  Boston.  .  .  .  But  this  [search  for  water],  attended 
with  other  circumstances,  the  wisdom  of  God  made  use  of 
as  a  means  of  spreading  his  Gospel  and  peopling  of  this 
great  and  then  terrible  wilderness ;  and  this  sudden  spread 
ing  into  several  townships  came  to  be  of  far  better  use  for 
the  entertainment  of  so  many  hundreds  of  people,  that  came 
for  several  years  [until  1640]  following  hither  in  such  mul 
titudes  from  most  parts  of  Old  England  than  if  they  had 
now  remained  all  together  in  this  town."  x 

It  seems  reasonable  to  believe  that  Dudley  and  his  family 
passed  their  first  winter  in  Boston.2  The  greatest  part  of 
the  church  removed  thither3  with  the  governor.  Dudley 
did  not  remain  in  Charlestown,  for  the  list  is  given  of  those 
who  were  not  scattered  abroad,4  and  his  name  is  not  found 
in  it,  neither  is  the  name  of  his  son-in-law,  Mr.  Bradstreet, 
there.  And  we  know  that  he  did  not  build  his  house  in 
Cambridge  until  the  next  year,  and  that  many  of  the  more 
distinguished  assistants  accompanied  the  governor  to  Bos 
ton  and  remained  until  spring.  Mr.  Dudley  has  himself 

1  Young's  Chron.,  380-382. 

2  His  letter  to  the  Countess  of  Lincoln,  dated  March  12,  1630,  which 
was  1631  N.  S.,  was  written  from  Boston,  and,  as  it  would  seem,  in  the 
only  room  occupied  by  himself  and  family  in  his  own  house  there. 
(Drake's  Hist,  and  Antiq.  of  Boston,  91,  note.) 

*  Young's  Chron.,  381.  *  Ib.,  382,  383. 


1630]  DISTRIBUTION   OF   EMIGRANTS  85 

given  a  very  graphic  account  of  the  dispersion,  but  he  does 
not  state  the  object  of  it  to  have  been  a  search  for  pure 
water ;  quite  likely  what  the  above  record  calls  a  "  circum 
stance,"  he  considered  the  chief  and  perhaps  only  cause. 

He  says  in  his  letter  to  the  Countess  of  Lincoln  :  "  But 
there  [at  Charlestown]  receiving  advertisements  by  some  of 
the  late-arrived  ships,  from  Lincoln  and  Amsterdam,  of  some 
French  preparations  against  us  (many  of  our  people  brought 
with  us  being  sick  of  fevers  and  the  scurvy,  and  we  thereby 
unable  to  carry  up  our  ordnance  and  baggage  so  far),  we 
were  forced  to  change  counsel,  and  for  our  present  shelter 
to  plant  dispersedly,  some  at  Charlestown,  which  standeth 
on  the  north  side  of  the  mouth  of  Charles  River ;  some  on 
the  south  side  thereof,  which  place  we  named  Boston  (as 
we  intended  to  have  done  the  place  we  first  resolved  on) 
[for  a  capital] ;  some  of  us  upon  Mystick,  which  we  named 
Medford ;  some  of  us  westwards  on  Charles  River,  four 
miles  from  Charlestown,  which  place  we  named  Watertown ; 
others  of  us  two  miles  from  Boston,  in  a  place  we  named 
Roxbury ;  others  upon  the  river  of  Saugus,  between  Salem 
and  Charlestown;  and  the  western  men  four  miles  south 
from  Boston,  at  a  place  we  named  Dorchester. 

"  This  dispersion  troubled  some  of  us ;  but  help  it  we 
could  not,  wanting  ability  to  remove  to  any  place  fit  to  build 
a  town  upon,  and  the  time  too  short  to  deliberate  any  longer, 
lest  the  winter  should  surprise  us  before  we  had  builded  our 
houses. 

"  The  best  counsel  we  could  find  out  was  to  build  a  fort 
to  retire  to,  in  some  convenient  place  [which  Dudley  did  at 
Cambridge],  if  any  enemy  pressed  us  thereunto,  after  we 
should  have  fortified  ourselves  against  the  injuries  of  wet 
and  cold.  So  ceasing  to  consult  further  for  that  time,  they 
who  had  health  to  labor  fell  to  building,  wherein  many  were 
interrupted  with  sickness,  and  many  died  weekly,  yea,  almost 
daily.  Amongst  whom  were  Mrs.  Pynchon,  Mrs.  Codding- 
ton,  Mrs.  Phillips,  and  Mrs.  Alcock,  a  sister  of  Mr.  Hooker's. 
Insomuch  that  the  ships  being  now  upon  their  return,  some 


86  THOMAS   DUDLEY  [CH.  vm 

for  England,  some  for  Ireland,  there  was,  as  I  take  it,  not 
much  less  than  a  hundred  (some  think  many  more),  partly 
out  of  dislike  of  our  government,  which  restrained  and  pun 
ished  their  excesses,  and  partly  through  fear  of  famine,  not 
seeing  other  means  than  by  their  labor  to  feed  themselves, 
which  returned  back  again ;  and  glad  were  we  so  to  be  rid 
of  them."  l 

Dudley's  account  of  the  distribution  of  inhabitants  in  all 
directions  seems  to  suggest  that,  since  they  could  not  build 
and  fortify  a  town  and  place  their  ordnance  in  such  a  posi 
tion  as  to  be  effective,  it  was  better  to  make  no  exhibition 
of  numbers  and  strength  to  tempt  the  enemy,  but  to  fold 
their  tents  and  silently  steal  away,  and  wait  for  spring  and 
health  and  prosperity.  The  fortitude  of  these  men  was  stu 
pendous  in  the  face  of  starvation  and  death,  without  houses 
or  homes,  and  winter  rapidly  approaching,  the  merciless 
ocean  in  front  of  them  and  the  unknown  and  mysterious 
forest  behind  them,  their  ranks  daily  decimated  by  disease, 
and,  last  of  all,  seeing  the  departure  and  desertion  of  a  hun 
dred  at  a  time,  in  total  discouragement  and  disgust,  of  per 
sons  who  had  consecrated  their  lives  to  this  enterprise,  and 
who  now  like  cowards  were  madly  seeking  a  place  of  retreat 
and  safety.  This  is  an  exhibition  of  heroism  which  matches 
anything  the  history  of  the  world  can  show  even  in  "  facing 
fearful  odds  "  on  the  fields  of  martial  glory  ;  for  there  the 
conflict  is  brief,  here  it  was  long  and  arduous  and  unremit 
ting,  endured  mostly  for  mankind,  for  posterity.  Certainly 
it  was  so  with  Dudley.  He  left  a  prosperous,  happy  home 
in  England.  His  life  was  approaching  its  decline.  He  was 
not  a  persecuted  clergyman,  without  visible  support,  fleeing 
from  the  fury  of  the  bishops. 

Isaac  Johnson  fell  a  victim  to  disease  and  privation  on  the 
30th  day  of  September,  1630.  His  lovely  wife,  Arbella,  for 

1  Young's  Chron.,  321-324,  App.  "  Dudley  and  Winthrop  seem  to 
have  been  less  impressed  with  the  heroism  of  those  who  stayed  than 
with  the  faint-heartedness  of  those  who  fled."  (J.  A.  Doyle's  English 
in  America,  i.  136.) 


1630]         ISAAC  AND   LADY   ARBELLA  JOHNSON  87 

whom  their  ship  was  named,  the  heroine  of  the  emigration, 
had  left  them  a  month  before  for  the  life  beyond.  Johnson 
was  the  largest  shareholder,  the  most  wealthy  man,  in  the 
company.  But  his  loss  to  the  colony  was  not  in  money  ;  in 
sterling  character  he  left  a  void  that  never  could  be  filled. 
We  can  we'll  understand  something  of  the  bereavement  sus 
tained  by  Dudley  in  the  demise  of  Isaac  and  Lady  Arbella 
Johnson.  He  could  say  with  sincerity  that  the  return  of 
indolent  adventurers  to  England  was  a  blessing  to  the  col 
ony.  But  the  departure  of  these  persons  was  another  thing. 
They  were  members  of  the  noble  house  of  Lincoln  ;  .they 
were  family  friends.  The  loss  of  such  wealth  of  character 
in  any  community,  no  matter  how  rich  it  might  be  in  dis 
tinguished  people,  would  be  irreparable ;  but  in  this  forlorn 
situation,  wherein  character  and  leadership  were  of  con 
summate  importance,  the  bereavement  was  overwhelming. 
Dudley  had  been  a  member  of  the  household  for  many 
years,  and  had  been  a  stay,  counselor,  and  business  director 
in  the  family ;  he  may  have  influenced  these  persons,  by 
his  words  or  his  example,  to  risk  every  earthly  hope  in  this 
emigration ;  they  were  nearer  to  him,  and  he  to  them,  than 
any  other  persons  in  the  colony,  —  we  need  not  except  his 
son-in-law,  Bradstreet,  who  was  younger.  He  must  have 
felt  keenly  the  demise  of  Lady  Arbella,  the  cherished  sister 
of  his  patron  and  dear  friend,  the  Earl  of  Lincoln.  He  had 
a  sympathetic,  compassionate  heart  beneath  his  dignified, 
judicial,  and  martial  bearing.  This  appears  in  his  affection 
ate  letters,  in  his  ardent  response  to  kindness  shown  to  him 
by  Governor  Winthrop  at  unexpected  moments,  when  his 
intrinsic  nature  was  shown  in  all  its  strength.  Dudley,  we 
cannot  doubt,  did  all  that  human  aid  could  accomplish  to 
console  and  comfort  the  heart  of  Mr.  Johnson  during  that 

brief  thirty  days  in  which 

"hetry'd 
To  live  without  her,  lik'd  it  not  and  dy'd." 

Dudley  has  given  to  us  his  own  beautiful  description  of  the 
situation,  full  of  pathos  and  personal  emotion.     He  says : 


88  THOMAS   DUDLEY  [CH.  vm 

"  This  gentleman  was  a  prime  man  amongst  us,  having  the 
best  estate  of  any,  zealous  for  religion,  and  the  greatest 
furtherer  of  this  plantation.  He  made  a  most  godly  end, 
dying  willingly,  professing  his  life  better  spent  in  promoting 
this  plantation  than  it  could  have  been  any  other  way."  He 
then  writes  one  of  his  comprehensive,  terse  sentences,  full 
of  discernment  of  the  worth  they  had  lost.  "He  left  to  us 
a  loss  greater  than  the  most  conceived."  He  then  describes 
their  stripped  and  desolate  condition.  "  There  were  left 
[by  the  end  of  October,  1630]  of  the  five  undertakers  but 
the  governor,  Sir  Richard  Saltonstall  and  myself,  and  seven 
other  of  the  assistants.  And  of  the  people  who  came  over 
with  us,  from  the  time  of  their  setting  sail  from  England, 
in  April,  1630,  until  December  following,  there  died  by 
estimation  about  two  hundred  at  the  least :  so  low  hath  the 
Lord  brought  us ! 

"  Well,  yet  they  who  survived  were  not  discouraged,  but 
bearing  God's  corrections  with  humility,  and  trusting  in  his 
mercies,  and  considering  how,  after  a  lower  ebb,  he  had 
raised  up  our  neighbors  at  Plymouth."  l 

Edward  Everett  has  so  touchingly  described  the  events  in 
this  chapter  that  we  quote  his  words  :  — 

"The  Massachusetts  Company  arrived  at  the  close  of 
June.  No  vineyards,  as  now,  clothed  our  inhospitable  hill 
sides  ;  no  blooming  orchards,  as  at  the  present  day,  wore  the 
livery  of  Eden,  and  loaded  the  breeze  with  sweet  odors ;  no 
rich  pastures,  nor  waving  crops,  stretched  beneath  the  eye 
along  the  wayside,  from  village  to  village,  as  if  Nature  had 
been  spreading  her  flowers  with  a  carpet,  fit  to  be  pressed 
by  the  footsteps  of  her  descending  God  !  The  beauty  and 
the  bloom  of  the  year  had  passed.  The  earth,  not  yet  sub 
dued  by  culture,  bore  upon  its  untilled  bosom  nothing  but 
a  dismal  forest,  that  mocked  their  hunger  with  rank  and 
unprofitable  vegetation.  The  sun  was  hot  in  the  heavens. 
The  soil  was  parched,  and  the  hand  of  man  had  not  yet 
taught  its  secret  springs  to  flow  from  their  fountains.  The 
1  Appendix  A. 


1630]  EVERETT'S   DESCRIPTION  89 

wasting  disease  of  the  heartsick  mariner  was  upon  the  men ; 
and  the  women  and  children  thought  of  the  pleasant  homes 
of  England  as  they  sank  down  from  day  to  day,  and  died  at 
last,  for  want  of  a  cup  of  cold  water  in  this  melancholy  land 
of  promise." 


CHAPTER   IX 

WE  have  attempted  to  present  these  emigrants  as  they 
were  in  the  autumn  of  1630,  with  their  trials,  and  wild, 
strange  environment. 

It  is  of  the  greatest  importance,  when  we  have  discovered 
their  real  status  and  associations,  to  ascertain  what  they  did, 
particularly  what  they  produced  which  has  come  to  us  and 
entered  into  our  social  fabric.  This  leads  us  at  once  to  the 
study  of  their  legislation.  For,  view  it  as  we  will,  in  their 
laws  we  find  the  life  and  inwardness  of  a  people,  the  high- 
water  mark  of  their  progress,  fixed  and  unalterable.  It  is 
true  laws  are  sometimes  in  advance  of  public  sentiment,  but 
in  general  they  are  the  product  of  the  intelligence  of  the 
majority.  "History  is  past  politics  and  politics  is  present 
history,"  says  Freeman.  Politics  is  the  theory  and  practice 
of  obtaining  the  ends  of  civil  society  as  perfectly  as  possible. 

It  is  certain  that  these  people  properly  regarded  their 
charter  as  the  foundation  and  constitution  of  a  government. 
It  has  been  said,  without  sufficient  authority,  that  they  had 
no  right  to  assume  it  to  be  such.  Certainly  the  fathers  did 
not  intend  to  be  deceived,  and  took  every  precaution  to  be 
certain,  as  we  have  seen.  Even  if  they  were  mistaken,  time 
has  healed  the  injury.  We  think  that  their  interpretation  of 
the  charter  was  reasonable  and  correct,  one  which  protected 
them,  and  secured  the  blessings  of  liberty  to  themselves  and 
their  posterity.  It  ill  becomes  us  to  waste  sympathy  on  the 
tyrannical  government  which  issued  the  charter,  and  to 
charge  double-dealings  upon  our  heroic  fathers,  —  godly  men, 
intrusted  in  the  providence  of  God  with  greater  human  inter 
ests,  more  important  to  their  race,  than  were  ever  given  to 
the  keeping  of  any  other  body  of  people  in  history,  —  a  trust 
performed  with  the  utmost  fidelity. 


1630]  EARLY   LAWS   OF   THE   COLONY  91 

The  first  Court  of  Assistants  was  held  at  Charlestown, 
August  23,  1630,  probably  in  the  "Great  House,"  at  which 
Dudley  was  present.  The  first  business  considered  was  the 
maintenance  of  the  ministers  in  the  most  comfortable  man 
ner  their  circumstances  allowed.  This  seems  to  manifest  at 
the  very  beginning  an  appreciation  of  their  importance,  and 
how  much  depended  upon  their  faithful  services  in  this 
undertaking.  The  rate  of  wages  to  be  paid  to  various 
mechanics  and  laborers  employed  in  building  was  also  deter 
mined  ;  it  is  quite  evident  that  carpenters  and  masons  were 
taking  advantage  of  the  immediate  necessity  for  houses,  all 
persons  impatiently  desiring  them  at  once.  The  next  Court 
of  Assistants  was  held  at  the  "Great  House"  at  Charles- 
town,  September  7,  1630.  Ludlow,  Rossiter,  and  Pynchon 
are  fined  a  noble  (6s.  6d.)  apiece  for  their  absence  from  the 
Court  after  the  appointed  time.  Herein  Dudley  furnished  to 
his  associates  for  years  a  creditable  example ;  he  was  almost 
never  absent  or  tardy  at  Court.  This  is  a  trifle,  but  it  indi 
cates  his  business  habits  of  attention  and  punctuality.  What 
ever  was  done  by  the  Court  in  his  lifetime,  whether  it  was 
action  that  was  wise  and  reasonable  or  otherwise,  it  was  his, 
he  was  a  part  of  it,  for  his  thought  was  in  it,  either  to  create, 
direct,  and  guide  or  to  modify  it.  The  doings  of  the  Courts, 
therefore,  since  he  left  no  biography  or  diary,  are  the  most 
permanent  memorials  of  his  life  work  from  1630  to  1653. 
Whoever  seeks  his  monument  must  search  the  records  of 
the  Colony  of  Massachusetts  Bay  in  New  England.1  He 
was  too  intent  upon  the  momentous  duty  of  the  hour  to 
study  the  far-off  effects  and  perspective  views  of  posterity 
upon  his  work.  He  came  to  America  and  cut  all  the 
bridges  behind  him ;  had  severed  himself  from  his  family, 
excepting  his  wife  and  children,  as  completely  as  if  a  deluge 
had  separated  them  ;  and  he  would  naturally  give  little  heed 
to  the  presentation  of  his  doings  and  himself  to  the  judg 
ment  of  later  generations.  It  was  not  that  he  was  thought 
less  of  those  who  were  to  follow  him.  These  twenty-three 
1  See  Savage's  note  to  Winthrop,  i.  *5i. 


92  THOMAS    DUDLEY  [CH.  ix 

years,  the  crowning  days  of  his  life,  were  devoted  freely  and 
unselfishly  to  the  establishment  of  an  asylum  and  refuge  for 
the  oppressed  of  future  times.  It  has  often  happened  that 
men  of  action  have  had  little  regard  for  their  fame,  or  the 
interest  of  posterity  in  them. 

Thomas  Morton,  of  Wollaston,  received  at  this  Court  well- 
deserved  punishment,1  resulting  in  his  being  sent  to  England, 
then  the  Botany  Bay  of  the  colony,  which  transportation,  if 
the  colony  had  used  more,  and  some  other  punishments  less, 
it  would  have,  in  the  opinion  of  more  humane  ages,  added  to 
its  lasting  merits.  It  was  ordered  that  "  Trimountain  shall 
be  called  Boston,"  a  change  in  name  not  due  to  the  Rev. 
John  Cotton,  as  it  has  been  said,  for  he  was  not  yet  in  the 
country.  Dudley  says  that  they  had  intended  in  advance  to 
name  the  "  place  Boston  that  they  first  resolved  on,"  —  we 
suppose  he  means  for  a  capital.  If  that  view  is  correct,  they 
decided  on  the  name  of  Boston,  and  the  place  for  a  capital, 
September  7,  1630,  then  in  the  following  December  changed 
their  minds,  and  resolved  that  Newtowne  (Cambridge)  should 
be  the  capital,  then  subsequently  changed  back  to  Boston 
permanently,  with  a  brief  exception,  in  1634-35. 

The  Court  refused  to  permit  any  Indians  to  use  any 
"Peece"  (musket)  upon  any  occasion  or  pretense  whatso 
ever.  It  also  began  on  the  same  28th  day  of  September 
its  temperance  crusade,  for  it  ordered  "  that  all  the  strong 
water  of  Richard  Clough  shall  presently  be  seized,  for  his 
selling  a  great  quantity  was  the  occasion  of  much  disorder." 
This  Court  was  active  also  in  the  determination,  as  a  matter 
of  law,  of  the  amount  each  mechanic  should  receive  as  daily 
wages,  which  still  seems  to  indicate  a  purpose  among  these 
house-builders  to  take  advantage  of  the  needs  of  the  people. 
But  if  that  were  so,  it  was  not  confined  to  them,  for  it  was 
ordered  at  the  same  time  "  that  laborers  in  general  shall  not 
take  above  i6d.  or  I2d.  a  day  for  their  work."  Sir  Richard 
Saltonstall  was  fined  four  bushels  of  malt  for  his  absence 
from  the  Court.  He  soon  grew  weary  of  the  exacting  life  in 
1  See  Young,  321,  and  note. 


1630]  COURT   OF  ASSISTANTS  93 

America,  and  returned  to  England  in  less  than  a  year  after 
he  left  it. 

A  meeting  of  the  General  Court  under  the  provisions  of 
the  charter  was  held  in  Boston  on  the  iQth  day  of  October, 
1630.  This  General  Court  was  made  up  out  of  three  ele 
ments.  First,  the  governor  and  the  deputy  governor  were 
the  executive,  although  the  second  body,  known  as  assist 
ants,  acted  with  the  executive  as  a  council,  as  the  governor 
to  this  day  has  a  council.  This  body  of  assistants  was  in 
the  course  of  years  developed  into  an  upper  house,  called  at 
present  the  Senate.  It  was  also  from  the  first  a  court  of 
judicature,  like  the  House  of  Lords  in  Parliament.  Then 
there  remained  another  element  called  the  freemen,  which 
included  all  male  persons  of  age  who  had  taken  the  oath  of 
allegiance  to  the  colony  and  the  laws,  and  had  been  admitted 
into  membership  in  the  company  by  a  direct  personal  cove 
nant  and  agreement,  —  in  other  words,  had  been  accepted 
by  the  company,  and  naturalized  into  it.  The  lower  house, 
known  at  present  as  the  House  of  Representatives,  must 
include  all  of  these  freemen,  or  else  a  small  body  of  repre 
sentatives  chosen  from  them,  and  given  all  the  powers  of 
legislation  which  the  whole  body  of  freemen  possessed. 
Thus  we  have,  first,  governor  or  deputy  governor  ;  second, 
assistants  ;  third,  freemen  or  their  representatives. 

The  first  business  that  came  before  the  General  Court, 
held  as  above,  was  the  establishment  of  the  government.  A 
hundred  and  eighteen  persons  had  asked  to  be  made  free 
men  ;  a  number  of  the  assistants  had  died,  and  others  had 
gone  home  to  England,  as  we  have  already  noticed.  This 
left  the  governor,  deputy  governor,  and  assistants  in  great 
anxiety,  lest  their  government  should  be  overthrown  or  domi 
nated  by  the  more  numerous  freemen,  who  had  not,  as  they 
thought,  the  knowledge  or  wisdom  to  manage  this  sacred 
enterprise,  the  hope  of  religion  and  the  world.  It  was  a 
crisis  sharp  and  dangerous.  They  might  be  engulfed  at 
once  by  an  unreasonable  democracy,  and  their  holy  experi 
ment  totally  wrecked,  to  the  great  and  everlasting  joy  of  the 


94  THOMAS   DUDLEY  [CH.  IX 

Philistines,  without  an  opportunity  to  teach  its  impressive 
lesson  to  mankind.  They  had  lived  under  a  very  autocratic 
government  in  England ;  they  had  a  conservative  and  nat 
ural  dread  of  democracy  pure  and  simple.  Even  now  the 
corruption  and  fickleness  of  political  parties  may  raise  a  rea 
sonable  doubt  in  thoughtful  minds  how  far  the  masses,  with 
indifferent  education  and  morals,  may  be  trusted,  and  where 
a  free  government  is  to  land  our  succeeding  generations. 
They  had  not  then  two  and  a  half  centuries  of  democracy  in 
America,  to  inspire  confidence  in  a  government  of  the  peo 
ple,  which  Abraham  Lincoln  had  when  he  said  in  his  first 
Inaugural  Address,  "Why  should  there  not  be  a  patient  con 
fidence  in  the  justice  of  the  people  ?  Is  there  any  better  or 
equal  hope  in  the  world  ?  "  No,  if  the  people  are  wise  and 
virtuous  !  But  if  they  are  ignorant  and  immoral,  it  admits 
of  doubt. 

The  Puritan  Fathers,  with  commendable  prudence,  dis 
pensed  power  and  responsibility  to  these  newly  enfranchised 
citizens  as  they  proved  their  fitness  for  self-government,  by 
their  knowledge  and  virtue,  and  not  by  their  hungry  clamor 
for  it.  This  they  did,  not  in  an  arbitrary  manner,  but  by 
convincing  the  majority  of  the  justice  and  wisdom  of  their 
action. 

It  was  therefore  arranged  at  this  first  General  Court  in 
Boston,  by  the  free  suffrages  of  assistants  and  freemen  to 
gether,  that  for  one  year  the  sole  and  only  power  left  with 
the  freemen  should  be  to  choose  the  assistants  to  serve  one 
year.  During  the  year  the  whole  legislature  and  officer- 
appointing  powers  were  vested  in  the  governor,  deputy  gov 
ernor,  and  assistants.1 

The  charter  contemplated  that  a  share  in  legislation  should 
be  taken  by  the  freemen,  and  this  power,  belonging  to  them 
under  the  charter,  they  requested  the  governor  and  assistants 
to  exercise  as  their  representatives,  for  a  year  at  a  time ; 
and  after  four  years  they  resumed  it  to  themselves,  May 
14,  i634.2  This  double  representative  service,  rendered  for 

1  Mass.  Col.  Rec.,  i.  79.  a  Ib.,  i.  118. 


1630]  NOT  OLIGARCHS  95 

and  on  behalf  of  the  freemen,  has  given  without  reason  an 
unwarranted  excuse  to  call  the  government  an  oligarchy,  and 
the  governor,  deputy  governor,  and  assistants,  oligarchs,  — 
a  name  which,  viewed  from  the  standpoint  of  their  repre 
sentative  character,  is  radically  and  intrinsically  false.1 

It  is  unjust  to  the  government,  and  discreditable  to  the 
country  of  which  their  action  and  record  is  a  distinguished 
part,  to  associate  them  by  name  and  inference  with  the  petty 
tyrants  of  antiquity.  This  is  especially  evil  because  they 
acted  in  a  most  patriotic  and  unselfish  manner.  The  power 
and  trusts  they  held  they  never  perverted  to  private  uses, 
nor  did  they  employ  them  to  secure  their  own  reelection, 
but  served  their  country ;  and  the  ends  of  justice  which  they 
sought  would  have  excused  a  departure  from  the  letter  of 
the  law,  even  if  they  had  exceeded  the  authority  of  the 
charter.  It  is  not  what  is  done  so  much  as  the  spirit  in 
which  it  is  done.  In  this  instance  the  law  was  not  violated. 

Thomas  Dudley  was  the  principal  founder  of  Newtowne ; 
the  name  was  changed  to  Cambridge  in  1636.  There  arose 
a  great  disagreement  between  Winthrop  and  Dudley  out  of 
the  settlement  of  this  town.  Governor  Hutchinson  says  that 
"on  the  sixth  of  December,  Governor  Winthrop  and  the 
assistants  met,  and  agreed  to  fortify  the  neck  between  Boston 
and  Roxbury,  and  orders  were  given  for  preparing  the  ma 
terials  ;  but  at  another  meeting,  on  the  twenty-first  [day  of 
December,  1630]  they  laid  that  design  aside,  and  agreed  on 
a  place  [Newtowne]  about  three  miles  above  Charlestowne, 

1  The  governor  and  assistants  were  not  absolute  rulers ;  they  had  by 
their  office  powers  under  the  charter.  They  were  also  made  represent 
atives  of  the  freemen,  the  source  of  power  coming  through  them  to 
tne  assistants.  Oligarchy  is  an  evil  misnomer  which  reminds  us  of  no 
other  thing  so  much  as  the  note  of  Mr.  James  Savage  upon  the  word 
"Antinomian,"  which  name  always  inflicted  a  qualm  upon  him.  He 
says  that  "  Welde  and  other  inquisitors  have  trusted  much  to  the 
influence  of  an  odious  name.  It  is  the  most  common  artifice  of  the 
'exquisite  rancor  of  theological  hatred.'"  (Winthrop,  i.  215,  note  i.) 
It  went  out  of  existence  with  the  political  uprising  which  made  Dudley 
governor  the  first  time. 


96  THOMAS   DUDLEY  [CH.  IX 

and  most  of  them  engaged  to  build  houses  there  the  next 
year."1  He  says  further  that  "in  the  spring  of  1631,  they 
pursued  their  design  of  a  fortified  town  at  Newtowne.  The 
governor  set  up  the  frame  of  a  house ;  the  deputy  gov 
ernor  finished  his  house  and  removed  his  family." 2  He 
further  informs  us  that  an  Indian  chief  visited  Governor 
Winthrop  about  this  time  and  assured  him  that  there  was 
no  need  of  fortifications,  which  seems  to  have  influenced 
him  to  make  his  home  in  Boston  instead  of  Cambridge,  for 
Hutchinson  says  that  "  the  apprehensions  of  danger  lessened 
by  degrees,  the  design  of  a  fortified  town  went  off  in  the 
same  proportion,  until  it  was  wholly  laid  aside.  The  gov 
ernor  [Winthrop]  took  down  his  frame  and  carried  it  to 
Boston.  Mr.  Dudley,  the  deputy,  was  offended,  and  per 
sisted  for  some  time  in  his  first  determination  of  residing  at 
Newtowne."3  "It  was  ordered4  there  should  be  three 
score  pounds  levied  out  of  the  several  plantations  within 
the  limits  of  this  patent  towards  the  making  of  a  palisade 
about  Newtowne,  and  viz.  :  Watertowne  ,£8,  Newtowne  ,£4, 
Charlestowne  £7,  Medford  £4,  Saugus  and  Marble  Harbor 
£6,  Salem  £4  ios.,  Boston  £8,  Roxbury  £7,  Dorchester 
£7,  Wessaguscus  [Weymouth]  £5,  Winettsem  303." 

This  record  assists  us  to  understand  how  complete  the 
distribution  of  inhabitants  had  been  in  such  a  short  time, 
and  the  relative  importance  of  these  places  early  in  1631. 
Dudley's  military  knowledge  and  foresight  has  been  ques 
tioned,  in  his  selection  of  Cambridge,  instead  of  Boston,  for 
the  purpose  of  fortification  and  protection.  Some,  at  least, 
of  his  reasons  were  that  in  case  of  attack  from  the  sea  it 
was  far  safer  to  be  in  the  interior,  out  of  range  of  guns  on 
shipboard.  They  were  not  in  a  condition  yet  to  fortify  the 
harbor  of  Boston,  and  could  only  throw  up  an  embankment 
and  erect  simple  palings  into  a  palisade  in  a  central  place, 
which  would  not  be  a  defense  against  the  artillery  of  Europe, 

1  Hutchinson,  i.  22.  2  Ib.,  23.  8  Ib.,  23. 

4  At  a  meeting  of  assistants  in  Boston,  February  3,  1631.  (Mass. 
Col.  Rec.,  i.  93.) 


1631-32]  BOSTON   AND   CAMBRIDGE  97 

but  only  a  protection  against  wild  beasts  and  the  darts  of 
savages.  This  did  not  require  hills  and  elevations.  Besides, 
Cambridge  was  on  the  west  side  of  most  of  the  plantations, 
and  thus  would  be  an  outlying  fortification  in  the  direction 
of  the  enemy,  and  a  defense  to  all  the  towns  except  Water- 
town,  which  is  near  to  it.  It  had  an  advantage,  also,  of  not 
being  so  near  to  the  sea  as  to  enable  the  enemy  to  hem  them 
in  and  thus  destroy  them.  However  persons  may  differ 
about  the  wisdom  of  the  selection  of  Cambridge,  it  certainly 
was  not  an  unreasonable  policy  to  fortify  it,  as  Dudley  did. 
One  thing  which  seemed  to  have  taken  from  the  importance 
of  a  fort  was  the  fact  that  if  they  retired  into  it,  they  must 
abandon  their  houses  and  homes  to  destruction  by  the  sav 
ages.  The  remains,  it  is  said,  of  Dudley's  fortification  might 
recently  have  been  seen  at  Cambridge.1 

It  is  quite  certain,  from  Winthrop's  diary,  that  he  and 
Dudley  did  not  live  in  the  most  harmonious  relations  with 
each  other  between  the  spring  of  1631  and  the  spring  of 
1632.  And  however  officially  they  may  have  tried  to  respect 
the  position  and  importance  of  each  other,  there  existed  a 
hardness,  which  grew  until  it  culminated  at  last  in  an  open 
rupture  in  Court  between  them.  The  character  of  Dudley, 
as  it  is  made  to  appear  in  the  record  of  his  opponent  and 
rival,  has  suffered  in  the  good  opinion  of  all  the  genera 
tions  since.  And  if  we  had  not  a  knowledge  of  him  pre 
viously  as  well  as  subsequently  to  guide  us,  the  seeming 
judicial  fairness  of  Winthrop's  delineations  in  these  disputes, 
as  we  have  already  noticed,  would  create  in  us,  as  it  has  in 
others,  a  prejudice  against  Dudley.  It  is  not  intended  to 
raise  a  question  as  to  the  purpose  of  Winthrop  to  be  fair, 
but  it  is  not  in  human  nature,  even  when  seasoned  with 
grace,  to  be  absolutely  just  to  an  opponent  in  a  contest,  par 
ticularly  where  there  is  constitutional  vigor  on  both  sides, 
and  blows  to  take  and  blows  to  give.  There  is  no  doubt 
that  these  two  men  were  at  the  head  of  this  colony  during 

1  T.  W.  Higginson's  Oration,  25oth  Anniversary,  December,  1880; 
Holmes's  Hist,  of  Cambridge. 


98  THOMAS   DUDLEY  [CH.  ix 

the  first  twenty  years.  They  had  very  few  estrangements, 
but  the  major  part  of  their  official  lives  was  passed  in  a 
friendship  as  beautiful  as  that  of  Saul  and  Jonathan,  without, 
as  it  would  seem,  a  flaw  to  disturb  their  perfect  harmony 
and  unity  of  spirit. 

Nevertheless,  until  they  learned  to  esteem  and  appreciate 
each  other  they  had  troubles  which  we  cannot  pass  over  in 
silence,  however  willingly  we  would  do  so. 

The  first  matter  which  disturbed  them  was  the  refusal  of 
the  governor  and  assistants  to  dwell  at  Cambridge,  establish 
ing  the  capital  there. 

Winthrop  had  withdrawn  unfairly,  as  it  appeared  to  the 
elders,  upon  an  examination,  and  Dudley,  who  regarded  the 
obligations  of  a  contract  as  extremely  sacred,  was  deeply  hurt 
at  the  manner  in  which  Winthrop  had  removed  his  house 
from  Cambridge,  without  giving  him  notice. 

Winthrop  says  that  "  At  a  Court  at  Boston,  the  deputy, 
Mr.  Dudley,  went  away  before  the  Court  was  ended,  and 
then  the  secretary  delivered  the  governor  a  letter  from  him, 
directed  to  the  governor  and  assistants,  wherein  he  declared 
a  resignation  of  his  deputyship  and  place  of  assistant ;  but  it 
was  not  allowed."  Mr.  Savage  well  says,  "  It  is  remarkable 
that  the  colony  records  give  no  account  whatever  of  this 
resignation,  or  of  another  event,  which  seems  to  have  been 
a  limitation  of  the  power  of  the  governor  or  the  consid 
eration  thereof."  This  is  said  to  have  been  done  April  3, 
I632.1 

Dudley  was  made  to  appear  rash,  angry,  and  unreasonable, 
not  by  anything  said  against  him,  but  by  being  left  without 
any  explanation  or  setting  forth  of  his  side  of  the  case  from 
his  own  standpoint.  It  is  true  we  have  more  details  later, 
but  they  take  their  color  from  the  same  source. 

We  do  not  know  from  Dudley  himself  what  he  suffered 
from 

"  The  insolence  of  office,  and  the  spurns 
That  patient  merit  of  the  unworthy  takes  ;  " 

1  Winthrop,  i.  *;2. 


1631-32]     WINTHROP   AND    DUDLEY   DISAGREE  99 

but  so  far  as  the  record  indicates,  by  its  omissions  at  least, 
he  was  not  rash.  The  most  important  trouble  of  the  removal 
of  the  house  had  made  him  unhappy  for  a  year,  and,  as  it 
proved,  Winthrop  had  done  him  a  wrong  and  yet  he  had 
borne  it  a  year  with  a  constant  accumulation  of  distress,  no 
doubt,  because  when  alienation  begins  in  friendship,  it  must 
be  healed,  or  the  divergence  constantly  increases. 

Finally  it  had  become  so  intolerable  that  he  was  willing 
for  the  sake  of  peace,  and  for  the  harmony  of  the  Court,  to 
relinquish  his  share  in  an  enterprise  which  had  drawn  into  it 
himself  and  his  estate,  his  hopes  for  his  children,  and  what 
was  more,  the  paramount  cause  to  him  of  righteousness  in 
the  earth,  and  the  holiest  experiment  of  government  in  the 
world.  He  had  taken  a  year  to  think  it  all  over,  and  in  his 
struggle,  alternating  between  hope  and  fear,  at  last  calmly, 
and  to  avoid  an  exhibition  of  passion,  he  placed  his  resigna 
tion  in  writing  in  the  hands  of  the  secretary.  It  is  a  notable 
fact,  which  ought  not  to  be  overlooked,  that  from  these  pages 
of  Winthrop,  which  seem  so  candidly  to  state  the  truth,  a 
new  character  undeserved  has  been  given  to  Dudley,  un 
known  to  his  contemporaries,  which  has  led  recent  writers  to 
apply  to  him  adjectives  not  suited  to  his  record  established 
in  England,  and  not  borne  out  in  Winthrop' s  Journal,  after 
the  first  years  in  Massachusetts.  It  is  true  that  Roger 
Williams,  and  a  few  others  who  tested  his  methods  of  jus 
tice,  did  not  approve  of  him,  and  these  men  have  contributed 
to  the  ill  opinion  that  has  been  promulgated  sometimes  by 
men  who  are  quite  willing  to  see  the  ancient  theology  ground 
to  powder,  upon  which  the  fathers  built  so  nobly. 

"  The  Puritans  were  narrow  ;  in  other  words  they  had  an 
edge  to  them,  as  men  that  serve  in  great  emergencies  must, 
for  a  Gordian  knot  is  settled  sooner  with  a  sword  than 
beetle."  l  But  in  another  view  they  were  very  liberal ;  they 
laid  broad  foundations  of  education  and  of  politics,  consider 
ing  their  historic  period,  upon  which  one  of  the  most  perfect 
superstructures  in  human  history  has  arisen.  "  The  bigoted 
1  Lowell's  Among  My  Books,  i.  243. 


ioo  THOMAS   DUDLEY  [CH.  ix 

Mr.  Dudley  "  l  is  a  character  which  is  not  on  the  whole  just 
to  him. 

It  is  instructive  to  examine  the  terms  applied  to  him  by 
his  contemporaries  and  personal  acquaintances.  He  was 
declared  by  them  to  be  a  "Trusty  Pillar,"  "Worthy,"  "Much 
honored,"  of  "Sound  judgment,"  "Like  honored,"  "An 
erect,  honored,  and  long-continued  champion  for  the  truth, 
as  it  is  in  Jesus,"  "The  honored,  aged,  stable,  and  sincere 
servant  of  Christ,  zealous  for  his  truth."  Winthrop  said  of 
Dudley,  long  years  subsequent  to  their  troubles,  and  after  he 
had  much  opportunity  to  learn  his  worth,  although  he  was 
his  political  rival :  "  Besides,  this  gentleman  was  a  man  of 
approved  wisdom  and  godliness,  and  of  much  good  service 
to  the  country,  and  therefore  it  was  due  to  share  in  such 
honor  and  benefit  as  the  country  had  to  bestow."2  These 
are  weighty  words  from  a  political  rival,  bursting  forth  at 
the  moment  of  triumph  over  himself.  We  shall  quote  later 

1  Mr.  James  Savage,  who  can  neither  endure  the  word  Antinomian  nor 
the  name  Dudley,  in  his  note  to  Winthrop's  Journal  i.  *2i5,  has  clearly 
shown  great  solicitude  when  reproachful  epithets  are  affixed  to  the  names 
of  characters  admired  or  cherished  by  him,  while  he  seems  far  less  con 
cerned  about  the  fortunes  of  other  worthy  names. 

He  says,  for  example,  that  "similar  and  often  much  heavier  artillery 
of  reproach  is  too  often  employed  in  that  fortress  within  which  the  brave 
defenders  fear  no  answer  of  an  adversary's  fire."  This  has  been  strik 
ingly  true  of  Dudley  for  many  years ;  he  has  had  no  one  to  defend  him  or 
call  a  halt  to  his  detractors.  Mr.  Savage  says  further,  and  very  perti 
nently,  particularly  when  the  treatment  Dudley  has  received  is  kept  in 
mind,  "  An  odious  name  is  the  most  common  artifice  of  the  exquisite 
rancor  of  theological  hatred."  We  will  test  the  odious  names  and  sen 
tences  which  have  appeared  often  where  the  name  of  Dudley  is  written : 
"With  a  hardness  in  public,  and  rigidity  in  private  life,"  Savage; 
«« Testy;"  "Bigoted;"  "Narrow;"  "Austerest  of  Puritans;"  "Iras 
cible  Dudley;"  "Bigoted  Dudley;"  "Man  of  blood,"— this  is  a  suffi 
cient  assortment  with  which  to  exhibit  the  "  exquisite  rancor  of  theolo 
gical  hatred."  Savage  says,  "  Welde  and  other  inquisitors  have  trusted 
much  to  an  odious  name."  Does  he  mean  to  style  all  men  inquisitors 
who  ruthlessly  detract  from  the  memory  of  the  just  by  the  use  of  evil 
epithets  ?  We  think  he  is  correct. 

2  Winthrop,  ii.  3. 


1631-32]     WINTHROP  AND   DUDLEY   DISPUTE  tor 

many  other  persons  whose  testimony  supports  the  same  ex 
cellent  character.  We  do  not  overlook  the  fact  that  certain 
persons  resist  the  testimony  of  these  associates,  the  only 
persons  who  knew  the  character  of  Dudley,  because  they 
regard  the  Massachusetts  Puritans  to  have  been  all  of  the 
same  sort,  merely  members  of  a  mutual  admiration  society. 
But  they  were  all  honest  men,  and  were  the  heroes  who 
founded  Massachusetts,  forever  worthy  of  veneration  and 
immortal  honor. 

But  returning  to  the  antagonism  between  Winthrop  and 
Dudley,  we  find  in  Winthrop' s  Journal,  under  date  of  May  i, 
1632,  page  *73,  the  following  :  "  Governor  and  assistants  met 
at  Boston  to  consider  of  the  deputy  his  deserting  his  place." 
"  Deserting  "  is  a  strong  word  to  express  a  retirement  with  a 
request  for  permission  to  depart  in  peace.  A  deserter  is  one 
who  quits  duty  without  right  or  permit.  We  must  go  behind 
the  words  of  Dudley's  rival.  "The  points  discussed  were 
two :  the  i  st,  upon  what  grounds  he  did  it ;  2d,  whether  it 
were  good  or  void.  For  the  ist,  his  main  reason  was  for 
public  peace;  because  he  must  needs  discharge  his  con 
science  in  speaking  freely;  and  he  saw  that  bred  disturb 
ance,"  etc.  How  admirable !  It  has  often  been  accounted 
creditable  in  a  minister  of  state  to  resign  his  office  to  produce 
harmony  in  a  cabinet  and  unity  in  its  action.  "  For  the  2d, 
it  was  maintained  by  all  that  he  could  not  leave  his  place, 
except  by  the  same  power  which  put  him  in ;  yet  he  would 
not  be  put  from  his  contrary  opinion,  nor  would  be  persuaded 
to  continue  till  the  General  Court,  which  was  to  be  the  Qth 
of  this  month." 

He  was  doubtless  most  heartily  sick  of  his  disagreeable 
situation,  and  having  made  up  his  mind  to  be  free,  and  hav 
ing  counted  the  cost  and  taken  his  stand,  he  was  not  an  un 
stable  politician,  to  be  coaxed  and  placated.  Patience  had 
ceased  to  be  a  virtue,  and  he  had  highly  resolved  to  be  out 
of  his  unendurable  sufferings.  We  can  find  only  commenda 
tion  for  both  his  spirit  and  manner.  This  was  not  petty 
conduct  in  him.  His  life  before  and  after  assures  us  of  the 


,162;  THOMAS   DUDLEY  [CH.  ix 

judicial  judgment  upon  which  in  general  he  rested  his  actions. 
He  had  been  all  his  life  a  man  of  moral  and  religious  calibre, 
fearing  God  and  attentive  to  duty.  This  established  record 
assists  us  to  estimate  how  he  would  act  under  given  condi 
tions  of  trial  and  misfortune.  True  character  is  the  one 
thing  in  this  world  that  outrides  at  last  all  storms  and  mis 
representations.  Truth  is  in  the  keeping  of  the  Almighty 
Father  himself.  Men  may  gloss  and  obscure,  but  the  light 
finds  a  rift  in  the  clouds  at  last,  and  comes  streaming 
through. 

"  Truth  crushed  to  earth  shall  rise  again,  — 

The  eternal  years  of  God  are  hers ; 
But  error,  wounded,  writhes  with  pain, 

And  dies  among  his  worshipers."  1 

We  must,  however,  follow  Winthrop's  arraignment  of  Dud 
ley,  not  because  the  charges  amount  to  anything  in  them 
selves,  for  they  do  not,  but  because  they  are  the  nebulous 
stuff  out  of  which  persons  who  do  not  approve  of  the  vigor 
ous  methods  of  the  Puritans  have  chosen  to  give  a  character 
to  Dudley  which  does  not  accord  with  what  is  known  of 
him. 

"  Another  question  fell  out  with  him  [Dudley]  about  some 
bargains  he  had  -made  with  some  poor  men,  members  of  the 
same  congregation,  to  whom  he  had  sold  seven  bushels  and 
an  half  of  corn  to  receive  ten  for  it  after  harvest,  which  the 
Governor  [Winthrop]  and  some  others  held  to  be  oppressing 
usury,  and  within  the  compass  of  the  statute ;  but  he  [Dud 
ley]  persisted  to  maintain  it  to  be  lawful  [as  he  was  bound  to 
do  if  he  thought  so,  and  he  was  not  the  man  to  do  it  unless 
he  did  so  think],  and  there  arose  hot  words  about  it."  We  are 
not  told  which  was  most  effective  with  hot  shot,  but  inas 
much  as  Dudley  was  the  one  charged  with  grinding  the  face 
of  the  poor  of  his  own  family  in  the  church,  the  presumption 
intended  to  be  raised  in  the  mind  of  the  reader  is  that  he 
was  most  in  wrath  and  most  in  fault.  If  Winthrop  has 
quoted  fairly  the  words  of  Dudley  on  that  occasion,  we  are 

1  Bryant. 


1631-32]     DUDLEY  AND   WINTHROP   AROUSED  103 

inclined  to  regard  them  as  very  moderate  and  calm,  and,  so 
far  as  they  reflect  upon  Winthrop's  charges,  very  true  and 
just.  For,  as  Savage  shows  in  his  note  to  this  passage, 
Dudley  was  only  doing,  if  we  admit  the  trade  to  have  been 
made,  what  was  and  is  usual  among  farmers,  "  he  telling  the 
governor  that,  if  he  had  thought  he  had  sent  for  him  to  his 
house  to  give  him  such  usage,  he  would  not  have  come  there ; 
and  that  he  never  knew  any  man  of  understanding  of  other 
opinion ;  and  that  if  the  governor  thought  otherwise  of  it, 
it  was  his  weakness."  * 

"The  governor  took  notice  of  these  speeches,  and  bear 
them  with  more  patience  than  he  had  done,  upon  a  like  occa 
sion,  at  another  time."  It  was  evidently  assumed  by  the 
governor  that  he  was  the  injured  man,  for  the  reasonable 
and  truthful  remarks  of  Dudley,  given  it  may  be  with  a  little 
natural  earnestness,  because  he  considered  the  charges  of 
the  governor  to  be  trivial  nonsense,  as  they  were,  gave  the 
governor  an  opportunity  to  exhibit  the  distinguishing  grace 
of  ancient  Job,  in  a  degree  somewhat  in  excess  of  his  previ 
ous  record,  and,  what  is  more,  to  write  it  down  t  in  such  a 
good-natured  and  genial  form,  that  his  own  excellent  quali 
ties  are  not  neglected. 

But  divested  of  all  drapery,  it  is  an  attempt  to  magnify 
nothing  into  something,  a  molehill  into  a  mountain,  and  like 
the  charge  following  it,  it  takes  from  the  august  majesty 
of  Winthrop.  Idealization  of  the  qualities  of  great  men  is 
one  of  the  noblest  powers  we  have.  Our  heroes,  thus  invested 
with  ideal  perfections,  stimulate  us  always  to  advance  to 
greater  attainment.  But  it  is  healthful  to  turn  the  search 
light  upon  them,  and  view  them  in  the  real  conflicts  of  life, 
divested  of  the  supernatural  qualities  with  which  we  have 
canonized  them. 

We  are  called  to  note  another  instance  of  Winthrop's 

fostering  care  of  Dudley  and  the  colony.     He  says,  "  Upon 

this  there  arose  another  question  about  his  [Dudley's]  house. 

The  governor  having  formerly  told  him,  that  he  did  not  well  to 

1  Winthrop,  i.  *73. 


104  THOMAS   DUDLEY  [CH.  ix 

bestow  such  cost  about  wainscoting  and  adorning  his  house, 
in  the  beginning  of  a  plantation,  both  in  regard  of  the  neces 
sity  of  public  charges,  and  for  example,  etc.,  his  answer  now 
was,  that  it  was  for  the  warmth  of  his  house,  and  the  charge 
was  little,  being  but  clapboards  nailed  to  the  wall  in  the  form 
of  wainscot." l 

Dudley  asked  to  be  allowed  to  resign,  because  he  could 
not  peaceably  and  conscientiously  speak  and  act  without 
creating  a  disturbance.  And  this  privilege  of  departure  was 
denied  to  him,  and  the  governor  proceeds,  thus  out  of  the 
kindness  of  his  spirit,  adding  two  more  grievances  to  his 
miserable  mischance.  If  there  is  a  blessing  assured  to  peace 
makers  among  the  Beatitudes,  as  there  certainly  is,  Dudley 
in  this  Court  seems  to  have  done  very  much  to  deserve  it, 
and  is  entitled  to  universal  sympathy. 

The  question  of  the  removal  of  the  governor's  house  from 
Cambridge,  together  with  a  charge  on  the  part  of  Dudley 
that  the  governor  was  taking  too  much  authority  upon  him 
self,  came  up  by  agreement  before  the  elders  at  Charlestown, 
August  3,  1632.  Dudley  said  that  he  had  grievances  which 
under  advice  he  should  let  pass,  and  confine  himself  to  two. 
ist.  "  That  the  governor  did  not  build  at  Newtowne  as  agreed, 
and  that  he  thus  made  a  breach  of  his  promise."  The  gov 
ernor  answered  that  "  he  had  a  house  up,  and  seven  or  eight 
servants  abiding  in  it,  by  the  day  appointed,  and  for  the 
removing  of  his  house,  he  alleged  that,  seeing  that  the  rest 
of  the  assistants  went  not  about  to  build,  and  that  his  neigh 
bors  of  Boston  had  been  discouraged  from  removing  thither 
by  Mr.  Deputy  himself,  and  thereupon  had  (under  all  their 
hands)  petitioned  him,  that  (according  to  the  promise  he 
made  to  them  when  they  first  sat  down  with  him  at  Boston, 
viz.  that  he  would  not  remove,  except  they  went  with  him) 
he  would  not  leave  them ;  —  this  was  the  occasion  that  he  re 
moved  his  house.  Upon  these  and  other  speeches  to  this 
purpose,  the  ministers  went  apart  for  an  hour ;  then  return 
ing,  they  delivered  their  opinions,  that  the  governor  was  in 
1  Winthrop,  i.  *73- 


1631-32]  WINTHROP'S    HOUSE   REMOVED  105 

fault  for  removing  of  his  house  so  suddenly,  without  confer 
ring  with  the  deputy  and  the  rest  of  the  assistants  ;  but  if 
the  deputy  were  the  occasion  of  discouraging  Boston  men 
from  removing,  it  would  excuse  the  governor  a  tanto  but 
not  a  toto."1  It  is  well  to  observe  here  that  the  ministers 
do  not  decide  the  question  whether  the  deputy  had  discour 
aged  the  Boston  men.  They  did,  however,  afterwards  decide 
in  favor  of  Dudley.  They  do  find  Winthrop  at  fault  in  the 
removal  of  his  house,  and  later  2  adjudge  that  he  shall  furnish 
a  minister  to  Cambridge  because  thereof.  This  was  a  serious 
matter.  Dudley  had  gone  to  Cambridge  with  the  express 
agreement  that  the  government  and  the  capital  were  to  be 
removed  there.  It  was  with  great  difficulty  that  he  could 
reconcile  himself  to  his  unexpected  misfortune ;  it  was  the 
work  of  years,  and  finally  he  left  Cambridge  himself  in  1636, 
to  reside  in  Ipswich,  and  ultimately  at  Roxbury. 

1  Winthrop,  i.  *83-  *  See  p.  112  of  this  volume. 


CHAPTER   X 

WINTHROP,  it  seems  by  the  accounts  of  Dudley  and 
Hutchinson,  had  promised,  on  the  2ist  day  of  December, 
1630,  to  build  his  house  in  Cambridge  the  next  year.  He 
now  argued  that  he  performed  the  letter  of  his  promise,  but 
the  ministers  decided  that  he  did  not  perform  the  spirit  of 
it,  and  was  in  fault.  Winthrop  thereupon,  in  great  conde 
scension  and  deference  to  the  "  wise  and  godly  ministers," 
but  without  any  change  of  opinion  on  his  part,  said  some 
thing  which  conceded  nothing,  and  which  he  hoped  would 
be  taken  as  a  full  reparation  for  all  his  fault  to  him,  the 
deponent,  unknown.  His  skillful  words  were,  "The  gov 
ernor,  professing  himself  willing  to  submit  his  own  opinion 
to  the  judgment  of  so  many  wise  and  godly  friends,  acknow 
ledges  himself  faulty."  He  continued  of  the  same  opinion 
himself.  He  had  promised  both  to  go  to  Cambridge  and  to 
Boston,  and  when  the  hour  of  reckoning  overtook  him,  he 
went  in  the  direction  of  least  resistance.  Moreover,  we  have 
only  his  own  version  of  this  disagreeable  business.  Dudley 
left  not  a  word  of  justification,  and  his  reputation  must  abide 
the  result.  The  conclusion  of  the  whole  matter  is  that  the 
ministers,  who  were  the  judges  in  the  case,  found  Winthrop 
guilty,  although  he  lets  himself  down  very  easily  in  his  own 
diary,  and  there  is  no  other  account  of  the  affair.  They 
took  a  recess  before  entering  upon  the  next  and  more  seri 
ous  complaint.  "After  dinner  the  deputy  [Dudley]  pro 
ceeded  in  his  complaint,  yet  with  this  protestation,  that 
what  he  should  charge  the  governor  with,  was  in  love,  and 
out  of  his  care  of  the  public,1  and  that  the  things  which  he 

1  We  may  feel  confidence  that,  if  he  used  those  words,  he  meant 
what  he  said,  for  he  was  "  too  honest  or  too  proud  to  feign  a  love  he 


1631-32]  WINTHROP   QUESTIONED  107 

should  produce  were  but  for  his  own  satisfaction,  and  not  by 
way  of  accusation.  Then  demanded  he  of  him  the  ground 
and  limits  of  his  authority,  whether  by  the  patent  or  other 
wise."  This  was  an  important  and  fundamental  question, 
and  we  shall  observe  later  that  other  persons  in  the  colony 
were  solicitous  respecting  the  course  of  the  government  in 
this  matter  of  excess  of  authority.  They  had  tasted  tyranny 
before  they  came  to  America,  and  had  a  dread  of  one-man 
power.  Dudley  realized  the  importance  of  obedience  to  law 
in  the  officers  and  governors  of  the  people,  and  more  par 
ticularly  so  until  the  government  was  firmly  rooted  and 
grounded  in  the  respect  and  confidence  of  the  masses. 
Winthrop  was  subsequently  impeached  on  this  ground,  and, 
although  he  came  out  of  the  contest  with  credit  to  himself, 
the  charges  indicated  the  public  anxiety  respecting  him. 
Dudley  stands  well  in  this  respect.  He  was  four  years  gov 
ernor,  and  thirteen  years  deputy  governor,  and  although 
constantly  in  public  life,  and  always  under  the  inspection  of 
the  people,  no  reflection  rests  upon  his  career  that  he  sought 
to  secure  or  retain  power.  He  was,  it  is  true,  a  member  of 
the  discredited  council  for  life,  with  others,  but  that  was 
ornamental,  and  never  vexed  the  liberties  or  rights  of  the 
people  by  any  unfortunate  doings.  "The  governor  [Mr. 
Winthrop]  answered,  that  he  was  willing  to  stand  to  that 
which  he  propounded,  and  would  challenge  no  greater  au 
thority  than  he  might  by  the  patent.  The  deputy  [Mr. 
Dudley]  replied,  that  then  he  had  no  more  authority  than 
every  assistant  (except  power  to  call  courts,  and  precedency 

never  cherished."  He  shared  with  others  a  reasonable  solicitude  re 
specting  Winthrop's  arbitrary  use  of  authority,  which  might,  if  suffered 
in  silence,  soon  extend  over  all  the  affairs  of  the  government.  The 
disagreeable  duty  of  calling  a  halt  fell  naturally  and  by  necessity  to 
Dudley,  and  we  cannot  fail  to  note  the  tender  way  in  which  he  ap 
proached  this  duty ;  and  also  that  he  is  free  from  jealousy,  or  a  petty 
wish  to  annoy  the  governor,  or  to  supplant  him.  For  although  we 
have  so  little  of  the  record,  and  that  little  from  such  a  source,  yet  we 
have  enough  in  various  other  ways  to  enable  us  to  determine  the  prob 
able  limits  of  his  conduct. 


io8  THOMAS   DUDLEY  [CH.  x 

for  honor  and  order).  The  governor  answered  he  had  more ; 
for  the  patent,  making  him  a  governor,  gave  him  whatsoever 
power  belonged  to  a  governor  by  common  law  or  the  stat 
utes,  and  desired  him  to  show  wherein  he  had  exceeded, 
etc. ;  and  speaking  this  somewhat  apprehensively,  the  deputy 
began  to  be  in  passion  and  told  the  governor  that  if  he  were 
so  round  he  would  be  round1  too."2  Winthrop  evidently 
discovered  wrath  in  the  person  of  Dudley,  before  it  began 
so  to  glow  in  himself  as  to  reach  his  consciousness.  But  he 
had  certainly  surprised  Dudley,  when  he  sent  him  through 
all  the  statutes  of  the  realm  and  the  body  of  the  common 
law,  to  find  the  limits  of  gubernatorial  power  and  authority, 
which  Dudley  had  supposed  until  that  moment  were  con 
tained  in  the  patent,  except  certain  incidental  and  implied 
powers  which  naturally  inhere  in  the  office  by  common  con 
sent.  This  was  not  consistent  with  the  uniform  practice, 
which  was  to  avoid  as  much  as  possible  foreign  law  and 
foreign  appeals.3  He  had  reason  to  think  that  Winthrop 
magnified  his  office  in  words,  as  he  had  already  done  in  acts. 
The  governor  admits  that  he  spoke  "somewhat  apprehen 
sively."  He  means,  perhaps,  sensitively,  or  with  feelings 
bordering  on  resentment.  They  had  both  reached  the  dan- 

1  The  word  "  round,"  as  here  used,  means  harsh,  severe,  and  shows 
how  Dudley  regarded  what  he  conceived  to  be  the  haughty  manner  of 
the  governor,  when,  as  a  citizen  and  as  a  patriot,  he  called  his  atten 
tion,  among  friends  in  council,  to  certain  matters,  in  which  he  was 
believed  by  others,  accidentally  or  otherwise,  to  have  exceeded  his 
powers ;  it  was  giving  him  an  opportunity  in  a  quiet  way  to  explain 
and  allay  the  natural  solicitude.     The  deputy  felt  for  the  instant  as  if 
the  moment  for  revolt  had  arrived.     They  had  left  Charles  I.  in  Eng 
land,  to  fall  into  the  hands  of  a  ruler  who  claimed  to  be  responsible,  in 
large  part,  to  the  courts  beyond  the  sea,  and  to  be  guided  by  statutes 
and  foreign  interpretations  of  the  law,  rather  than  the  patent  as  under 
stood  in  the  colony,  although  Winthrop  was  the  first  to  deny  the  force 
of  foreign  statutes  and  the  jurisdiction  of  English  courts  in  other  cases. 

2  Winthrop,  i.  *83. 

3  Rhode  Island  Hist.  Soc.  Coll.,  ii.  124,  125,  201 ;  Elliot,  i.  268,  284; 
Winthrop,  ii.  *27p,  *282,  #289;  John  Child's  New  England's  Jonas, 
Marvin  ed.,  pp.  xxx.,  xxxi.;  Mass.  Col.  Rec.,  i.  175. 


1631-32]    WINTHROP   AND   DUDLEY   WAX   WARM         109 

ger  line,  approaching  from  opposite  directions,  one  from  the 
seat  of  authority,  the  other  from  the  people. 

"The  governor  bade  him  be  round  [harsh,  severe],  if  he 
would.  So  the  deputy  [Dudley]  rose  up  in  great  fury  and 
passion."  l 

Dudley  always  began  the  trouble,  as  Winthrop  related  it ; 
he  was  the  cause  and  effect  of  all  the  wrong.  He  had  been, 
however,  disciplined  in  a  life  of  experience  in  judicial  service 
and  earlier  in  the  army,  and  above  all  he  was  accustomed  to 
situations  of  dignity.  He  was,  moreovejr,  under  the  power 
ful  restraints  of  religion.  He  was  in  his  day  accounted  both 
"wise  and  godly."  These  few  pictures  of  passion,  drawn  by 
his  rival,  were  intended  no  doubt  to  be  truthful,  but  never 
theless  they  are  both  inconsistent  with  his  education,  his 
honest  profession,  and  the  record  of  a  lifetime  before,  and 
many  official  years  subsequent  to  this.  There  is  such  a 
thing  as  holy  wrath  and  righteous  indignation.  The  gov 
ernor  grew  very  hot  also  (Dudley,  we  are  left  to  infer,  was 
the  cause  why  the  governor,  being  "much  enforced,  showed 
a  hasty  spark"),  "so  as  they  both  fell  into  bitterness,  but 
by  mediation  of  the  mediators  [the  ministers]  they  were 
soon  pacified.  Then  the  deputy  proceeded  to  particulars  as 
followeth :  — 

"  ist.  By  what  authority  the  governor  removed  the  ord 
nance  and  erected  a  fort  at  Boston  ? 

"  2d.  By  what  authority  he  lent  twenty-eight  pounds  of 
powder  to  those  of  Plymouth  ? 

"  3d.  By  what  authority  he  had  licensed  Edward  Johnson 
to  sit  down  at  Merrimack  ? 

"  4th.  By  what  authority  he  had  given  them  of  Watertown 
leave  to  erect  a  weir,  upon  Charles  River,  and  had  disposed 
of  lands  to  divers,  etc.  ? 

1  Even  if  he  was  a  little  excited,  he  had  the  great  example  of  Crom 
well.  "  His  [Cromwell's]  temper  was  exceeding  fiery,  as  I  have  known, 
but  the  flame  of  it  kept  down  for  the  most  part  or  soon  allayed  with 
those  moral  endowments  he  had."  (Letter  of  Maidstone  to  Winthrop, 
Jr.,  Mass.  Hist.  Soc.  Coll.,  3d  series,  i.  193.) 


no  THOMAS   DUDLEY  [CH.  x 

"5th.  By  what  authority  he  had  given  license  to  Rat- 
cliff  and  Grey  (being  banished  men)  to  stay  within  our 
limits  ? 

"  6th.  Why  the  fines  were  not  levied  ? 

"  /th.  That  when  a  cause  had  been  voted  by  the  rest  of 
the  Court,  the  governor  would  bring  new  reasons,  and  move 
them  to  alter  the  sentence  !  "  1 

To  each  of  these  several  questions  the  governor  gave  rea 
sons  which  were  sufficient,  without  doubt,  to  have  caused 
the  Court  to  direct  fhe  same  action  which  Winthrop  took  in 
the  premises,  so  that  the  conduct  of  Winthrop  was  intrin 
sically  correct ;  but  as  a  rule  his  actions  ought  regularly  to 
have  followed  an  order  of  Court,  which  they  did  not.  The 
governor  ought  to  have  stood  ready  to  answer  such  proper 
questions,  not  "  apprehensively,"  but  directly  and  squarely, 
without  mental  reservations,  particularly  to  the  deputy  gov 
ernor  and  without  any  resentment  because  of  the  liberty 
taken  or  the  interrogatories  propounded.  "  No  man  is  wise 
at  all  times,"  and  this  was  one  of  the  instances  in  which 
Governor  Winthrop  does  not  appear  at  his  best,  even  with 
the  great  advantage  of  being  allowed  to  tell  the  story  with 
no  opportunity  for  the  other  side  to  be  heard. 

The  governor  proceeded  now  to  give  his  thoughts  and 
opinions  respecting  the  situation,  with  so  much  seeming  can 
dor  that  the  world  in  general  has  accepted  the  description, 
as  clearly  showing  the  contrast  in  character  between  the  two 
men,  not  always  to  the  advantage  of  Dudley. 

"  The  deputy  having  made  an  end,  the  governor  desired 
the  mediators  to  consider  whether  he  had  exceeded  his  au 
thority  or  not."  The  mediators  were  silent,  and  did  not 
decide  until  a  subsequent  meeting.2  It  is  not  unreasonable 
to  believe  that  they  thought,  as  we  think,  that  the  matters 
charged  were  not  important  or  injurious,  but  that  the  gov 
ernor  was  taking  things  into  his  own  hands  in  a  manner 
which  ought  to  be  checked  at  once.  However,  since  the 
deputy  had  administered  the  needful  caution,  and  since  a 
1  Winthrop,  i.  *84,  *8s.  2  Ib.,  i.  88. 


1631-32]     DUDLEY   PRUDENT,  NOT   PENURIOUS  in 

word  to  the  wise  is  sufficient,  they  adroitly  kept  out  of  the 
business,  but  subsequently  sustained  Dudley.1  They  were 
not  a  tribunal  which  was  bound  to  come  to  judgment ;  they 
were  only  a  group  of  mutual  friends  intent  upon  the  best 
interests  of  the  colony.  "  And  how  little  cause  the  deputy 
had  to  charge  him  with  it ;  for  if  he  had  made  some  slips  in 
two  or  three  years'  government,  he  ought  rather  to  have 
governed  them  [it  was  not  the  things  done,  so  much  as  it 
was  the  assumption  of  growing  power  and  authority],  seeing 
he  could  not  be  charged  that  he  had  taken  advantage  of 
his  authority  to  oppress  or  wrong  any  man,  or  to  benefit 
himself ;  but,  for  want  of  a  public  stock,  had  disbursed  all 
common  charges  out  of  his  own  estate,  whereas  the  deputy 
would  never  lay  out  one  penny,"  etc.  Here  the  generosity 
and  patriotic,  self-sacrificing  character  of  the  governor  ap 
pear  in  contrast  to  the  selfishness  of  Dudley.  He  had 
already  prepared  us  to  expect  this  in  his  graphic  picture  of 
Dudley  "  selling  seven  bushels  and  an  half  of  corn  to  receive 
ten  for  it  after  harvest."  And  so  far  as  I  have  been  able  to 
learn,  it  is  from  these  two  passages  that  the  false  story  of 
Dudley's  stingy  character  originated. 

It  must  be  admitted  without  question  that  in  money  mat 
ters  Dudley  was  prudent  and  careful.  He  could  not  have 
lifted  the  estate  of  the  Earl  of  Lincoln  out  of  poverty  with 
out  that  quality  and  the  power  which  came  from  it.  It  was 
then  thought  to  be  greatly  to  his  credit.  He  was  the  busi 
ness  man  of  the  colony.  Dudley  lived  and  acted  according 
to  the  doctrine  and  philosophy  of  Burns  :  — 

"  To  catch  dame  Fortune's  golden  smile, 

Assiduous  wait  upon  her ; 
And  gather  gear  by  ev'ry  wile 

That 's  justified  by  honor ; 
Not  for  to  hide  it  in  a  hedge, 

Nor  for  a  train-attendant ; 
But  for  the  glorious  privilege 

Of  being  independent." 

1  Page  112  of  this  volume. 


112  THOMAS    DUDLEY  [CH.  x 

Dudley's  trades  in  corn,  as  we  have  said,  were  not  unusual 
or  unfair,  and  have  long  since  been  the  custom.  Besides, 
the  great  scarcity  of  seed  corn  at  that  time  made  the  rate 
more  reasonable,  and  if  we  had  the  facts,  it  might  be  shown 
that  Dudley  really  did  the  thing  as  a  special  favor  to  his 
friends,  and  that  if  he  had  been  mean,  he  would  have  re 
tained  the  seed  corn  and  used  it  himself.  It  was  no  doubt 
an  act  of  kindness,  in  part,  from  his  standpoint.  His  side 
of  this  episode  has  not  been  told,  at  least  not  by  himself. 

Dudley  served  the  public  twenty-three  years  faithfully 
and  honestly,  and  never  came  under  condemnation  in  office, 
and  never  received  anything,  so  far  as  appears  on  record,  ex 
cept  a  gratuity  now  and  then  towards  the  end  of  his  career, 
declared  always  to  be  no  just  payment  of  the  value  of  the 
service.  So  Dudley  might  have  claimed  to  be  a  generous 
public  benefactor,  but  he  never  did.1 

We  are  permitted  now  and  then  to  catch  a  glimpse  of  the 
real  nature  of  Dudley,  of  far  greater  interest  than  any  direct 
efforts  of  Governor  Winthrop  himself,  or  anybody  else,  to 
describe  him.  Because  in  the  study  of  character  every  day, 
the  view  when  persons  are  off  guard,  when  the  mask  is  up, 
when  their  thought  is  far  away  from  themselves,  enables 
one  to  penetrate  deepest  into  their  interior  life. 

The  ministers  tried  later  to  reconcile  these  persons,  and 
the  account  by  Winthrop  is  as  follows  :  — 

"  The  ministers  afterwards,  for  an  end  of  the  difference 
between  the  governor  and  deputy,  ordered  that  the  gov 
ernor  should  procure  them  a  minister  at  Newtown,  and  con 
tribute  somewhat  towards  his  maintenance  for  a  time ;  or, 
if  he  could  not  by  the  spring  effect  that,  then  to  give  the 
deputy,  toward  his  charges  in  building  there,  twenty  pounds. 
[Dudley  stands  ahead  in  this  dispute ;  there  was  probably  a 
stronger  case  for  him  than  appears  in  the  Journal  of  Win 
throp.]  The  governor  accepted  this  order,  and  promised  to 
perform  it  in  one  of  the  kinds.  But  the  deputy,  having 
received  one  part  of  the  order,  returned  the  same  to  the 
1  Morton's  New  England's  Memorial,  166. 


1631-32]        DUDLEY  AND   THE   FORT   IN   BOSTON         113 

governor,  with  this  reason  to  Mr.  Wilson,  that  he  was  so 
well  persuaded  of  the  governor's  love  to  him,  and  did  prize 
it  so  much,  as,  if  they  had  given  him  one  hundred  pounds 
instead  of  twenty  pounds,  he.  would  not  have  taken  it."  * 
Here  is  the  same  elevation  of  soul,  the  same  Christian  mag 
nanimity,  and  no  one  can  read  these  words  and  not  feel  that 
a  wrong  has  been  done  to  Dudley  by  the  epithets  which 
have  been  applied  to  him. 

Winthrop  says  further,  "  Notwithstanding  the  heat  of 
contention,  which  had  been  between  the  governor  and  the 
deputy,  yet  they  usually  met  about  their  affairs,  and  that 
without  appearance  of  any  breach  or  discontent ;  and  ever 
after  kept  peace  and  good  correspondency  together,  in  love 
and  friendship." 

There  is  an  entry  in  the  Journal,  page  *  1 1 7,  November, 
1633,  which  makes  this  last  quotation  a  trifle  premature,  but 
it  is  correct  in  the  main.  The  entry  is  as  follows  :  — 

"  Some  differences  fell  out  still,  now  and  then,  between 
the  governor  and  deputy,  which  yet  were  soon  healed.  It 
has  been  ordered  in  Court  that  all  hands  should  help  to  the 
finishing  of  the  fort  of  Boston,  and  all  the  towns  in  the  bay 
had  gone  once  over,  and  most  the  second  time ;  but  those 
of  Newtown  being  warned,  the  deputy  would  not  suffer  them 
to  come,  neither  did  acquaint  the  governor  with  the  cause, 
which  was,  for  that  Salem  and  Saugus  had  not  brought  in 
money  for  their  parts."  Dudley  felt  that  there  was  a  wrong 
which  could  only  be  remedied  by  holding  out  until  it  was 
righted.  And  he  may  well  have  presumed  that  the  gov 
ernor  knew  and  understood  it.  "  The  governor,  hearing  of 
it,  wrote  friendly  to  him,  showing  him  that  the  intent  of  the 
Court  was,  that  the  work  should  be  done  by  those  in  the 
bay,  and  that,  after,  the  others  should  pay  a  proportionable 
sum  for  the  house,  etc.,  which  must  be  done  by  money ;  and 
therefore  desired  him  that  he  would  send  in  his  neighbors. 
Upon  this,  Mr.  Haynes  and  Mr.  Hooker  came  to  the  gov 
ernor  to  treat  with  him  about  it,  and  brought  a  letter  from 
1  Winthrop,  i.  *88. 


ii4  THOMAS   DUDLEY  CH.  x 

the  deputy  full  of  bitterness  and  resolution  not  to  send  till 
Salem,"  etc.  We  do  not  know  what  was  in  the  letter,  but 
we  can  feel  sure  that  after  he  had  been  deeply  disappointed 
that  Cambridge  was  not  the  capital  of  the  colony,  and  after 
he  had  at  great  patriotic  and  personal  labor  and  cost  con 
structed  the  palisade  there  for  the  defense  of  the  entire 
colony,  and  since,  moreover,  he  did  not  believe  in  either  the 
present  settlement  of  Boston  or  the  fortification  of  it,  and 
all  the  inhabitants  of  Cambridge  felt  as  he  did,  that  he  would 
advance  cautiously.  We  can  under  these  circumstances 
have  some  charity  for  the  people  of  Cambridge,  and  some 
sympathy,  when  they  said  other  towns  as  remote,  and  need 
ing  this  more,  must  do  their  part,  and  then  they  would  do 
their  part  also.  "  The  governor  told  them  it  should  rest  till 
the  Court,  and  withal  gave  the  letter  to  Mr.  Hooker  with 
this  speech :  I  am  not  willing  to  keep  such  an  occasion  of 
provocation  by  me."  Which  speech  does  great  credit  to 
Governor  Winthrop. 

Now  the  politic  Winthrop  thought  that  as  Dudley  was 
exceedingly  in  need  of  hogs,  he  would  test  him  ;  and  would 
couple  two  of  the  deputy's  dearest  friends  in  the  tempta 
tion.  Bread  and  meat  are  ancient  temptations.  Let  him 
tell  the  story  :  — 

"  And  soon  after,  he  wrote  to  the  deputy  (who  had  before 
desired  to  buy  a  fat  hog  or  two  of  him,  being  somewhat  short 
of  provisions)  to  desire  him  to  send  for  one  (which  he  would 
have  sent  him,  if  he  had  known  when  his  occasion  had  been 
to  have  made  use  of  it),  and  to  accept  it  as  a  testimony  of 
his  good-will  [ Whittier  has  beautifully  said  a  '  genuine  token 
of  love  and  good-will  has  no  limitations  of  time,  and  is  never 
out  of  place '] ;  and  lest  he  should  make  any  scruple  of  it, 
he  made  Mr.  Haynes  and  Mr.  Hooker  [who  both  sojourned 
in  his  house]  partakers  with  him. 

"  Upon  this  the  deputy  returned  this  answer :  '  Your 
overcoming  yourself  hath  overcome  me.  Mr.  Haynes,  Mr. 
Hooker,  and  myself  do  most  kindly  accept  your  good-will ; 
but  we  desire  without  offense  to  refuse  your  offer  and  that 


1631-33]     WINTHROP   AND   DUDLEY   FRIENDS  115 

I  may  only  trade  with  you  for  two  hogs ; '  and  so  very  lov 
ingly  concluded." l 

Misers  and  niggards  are  made  of  sterner,  more  unrelent 
ing  stuff  than  this.  His  great,  chivalrous  heart  welcomed 
the  touch  of  kindness  and  reconciliation  as  the  hart  the 
water  brook.  It  was  not  lucre,  but  love,  which  reached  him ; 
he  was  not  sordid,  he  had  his  conversation  in  heaven,  where 
all  is  love.  We  are  left  to  guess  as  to  the  attitude  and  feel 
ings  of  Dudley.  We  have  not  a  line  about  all  this  over  his 
signature,  and  must  spell  out  all  we  can  between  the  lines 
of  his  rival's  Journal. 

It  is  delightful  to  remember  that  after  1633  we  hear  of  no 
more  disputes  or  dissensions  between  these  great  leaders,  the 
two  foremost  men  in  this  most  important  emigration  in  the 
tide  of  time.  They  lived  and  wrought  together  sixteen  more 
eventful  years  in  beautiful  harmony,  without  a  record  of 
strife  or  variance,  until  Governor  Winthrop  died,  in  1649. 
Who  can  find  the  heart  to  inveigh  against  or  disparage  the 
memory  and  record  of  either  of  them  ?  They  both  belong 
to  the  illustrious  school  of  Cromwell,  Hampden,  Pym,  and 
their  coadjutors  on  the  other  side  of  the  sea.  Their  honor 
and  renown  is  a  part  of  the  wealth  and  heritage  of  their 
country,  and  it  is  not  a  patriotic  service  to  detract  from  the 
character  of  either  of  them. 

There  is  a  beautiful  picture  presented  of  these  noble  men, 
by  Hon.  Robert  C.  Winthrop,  worthy  of  perpetual  remem 
brance,  mentioned  elsewhere.  It  is  a  lasting  covenant  of 
love  and  good- will  between  them  at  Concord,  Mass.,  April 
24,  1638. 

1  Winthrop,  i.  *n8, 


CHAPTER   XI 

A  CHURCH  was  soon  established  at  each  of  the  various 
settlements  of  Boston,  Charlestown,  Dorchester,  and  of  other 
towns,  on  the  same  model  as  that  of  Salem.  Every  hard 
ship  was  endured  by  these  heroic  men  and  women  during 
their  first  bitter  winter  in  America.  Hunger,  privation,  and 
disease  reduced  their  numbers  constantly,  weighed  down  their 
spirits  with  unrelenting  anxiety,  and  unnerved  them  in  the 
inevitable  struggle  into  which  each  was  forced  daily  to  pre 
serve  themselves  and  their  friends.  The  fortitude  of  these 
people,  and  their  unruffled  contentment  in  the  midst  of  suf 
ferings  and  perils,  have  never  ceased  to  receive  the  merited 
admiration  of  thoughtful  people.  Winthrop  wrote  to  his 
wife  out  of  the  depths  of  his  overwhelming  trouble,  "  I  thank 
God  I  like  so  well  to  be  here,  as  I  do  not  repent  my  coming. 
I  would  not  have  altered  my  course,  though  I  had  foreseen 
all  these  afflictions.  I  never  had  more  content  of  mind." 
And  Dudley,  after  saying  in  his  letter  to  the  Countess  of 
Lincoln,  that  up  to  December,  1630,  "there  died  by  esti 
mation  about  two  hundred  at  the  least ;  so  low  hath  the 
Lord  brought  us !  "  manifests  the  same  sweet  resignation 
in  the  following  words  :  "  Well,  yet  they  who  survived  were 
not  discouraged,  but  bearing  God's  corrections  with  humil 
ity,  and  trusting  in  his  mercies,  and  considering  how  after  a 
lower  ebb  he  raised  up  our  neighbors  at  Plymouth,  we  began 
again  in  December  to  consult  about  a  fit  place  to  build  a 
town  upon."  And  later  in  the  same  letter  he  says:  "Yet 
many  of  us  labored  to  bear  it  as  comfortably  as  we  could, 
remembering  the  end  of  our  coming  hither,  and  knowing  the 
power  of  God,  who  can  support  and  raise  us  again,  and  useth 
to  bring  his  servants  low  that  the  meek  may  be  made  glo- 


1630]  INDIANS  CARED   FOR  117 

rious  by  deliverance."  l  Everything  which  was  now  done  at 
the  very  beginning  by  these  remarkable  people  in  this  new 
and  strange  land  will  always  have  an  extraordinary  attraction 
for  the  zealous  student  of  American  history. 

They  came  to  America  in  a  large  measure  to  Christianize 
the  Indians ;  they  sought  liberty  for  themselves  and  their 
posterity,  and  also  to  redeem  the  wild  aborigines  from  dark 
ness  to  light.2  The  experience  of  the  English  in  Virginia 
had  already  assured  them  that  these  sons  of  the  forest  were 
not  to  be  implicitly  confided  in  and  trusted.  It  was  a  diffi 
cult  and  delicate  matter  to  establish  and  maintain  just  rela 
tions  with  them.  Even  two  and  one  half  centuries  later 
Indians  are  accounted  only  wards  of  the  government.  It  is 
to  the  honor  of  the  colony  that  during  this  early  period  they 
paid  the  Indians  for  their  lands.  The  Court  of  Assistants 
thought  it  inexpedient  to  trade  in  money  with  them.  It  may 
have  been  in  part  because  with  the  money  they  might  pro 
cure  arms  and  ammunition  from  the  enemies  of  the  colony, 
but  most  probably  the  Court  took  this  position  because  all 
the  money  in  the  colony  was  far  too  little  to  do  its  legitimate 
business.  They  also  deemed  it  unsafe  to  employ  them  as 
servants  in  their  households.3  They  seem  to  have  admin 
istered  justice  without  respect  of  persons.  Sir  Richard  Sal- 
tonstall  was  fined  at  one  Court  for  his  absence  from  Court, 
and  two  months  later  for  whipping  two  several  persons  with 
out  the  presence  of  another  assistant.  He  was  required  to 
give  to  Sagamore  John  a  hogshead  of  corn  for  the  hurt  his 
cattle  had  done  to  the  Indian  in  his  corn. 

Every  page  of  the  records  of  Massachusetts  Bay  in  the 
early  years  of  its  history  reveals  the  manifold  crimes  and 
misdemeanors  of  servants  and  adventurers,  who  with  na- 
thing  to  lose,  and  a  possible  opportunity  to  win  a  fortune, 
attached  themselves  to  this  emigration. 

1  Young's  Chron.,  320,  321. 

2  Conversion  of  the  Indians.     Young's  Chron.,  133,  142,  202,  211, 
215,  258,  273,  364. 

8  Mass.  Col.  Rec.,  i.  83. 


u8  THOMAS   DUDLEY  [CH.  xi 

The  Court  is  called  upon  at  one  time  to  consider  the  con 
duct  of  masters  and  servants  towards  each  other,  to  punish 
ill  speeches  of  servants  to  masters,  to  restrain  drunkenness 
and  the  immoderate  use  of  strong  water ;  at  another  time  to 
set  up  ferries,  boundaries  between  towns,  and  to  name  them ; 
to  make  rules  for  the  restraining  of  cows,  horses,  goats,  and 
swine ;  to  impanel  juries ;  to  satisfy  Indians  who  had  been 
overreached  by  white  men ;  to  punish  wicked  Indians  and 
venders  of  quack  and  worthless  medicines  ;  and  to  order  bad 
and  useless  people  to  be  returned  to  England.  These  are  a 
few  of  the  matters  coming  constantly  before  the  Court,  and 
at  every  session  Governor  Dudley  had  a  conspicuous  share 
in  their  settlement.  There  were  also  questions  about  the 
price  of  commodities  and  of  labor  to  be  fixed,  where  no  suffi 
cient  market  determined  such  matters,  and  persons  were 
therefore  inclined  to  take  advantage  of  the  freedom  from 
restraint  in  which  they  suddenly  found  themselves.  It  was 
indeed  this  newborn  freedom,  which  all  recently  enfranchised 
persons  are  wont  to  esteem  to  be  unbridled  license  to  do 
what  they  please,  which  gave  the  Court  its  greatest  anxiety 
and  kept  it  busy  with  manifold  new,  unheard-of,  and  before 
unadjudicated  questions. 

We  have  already  considered  the  action  of  the  General 
Court  in  October,  1630,  by  which  it  was  provided  that  free 
men  should  choose  the  assistants,  and  that  the  assistants 
from  among  their  own  number  should  select  the  governor 
and  deputy  governor,  who  with  assistants  should  make  the 
laws  and  appoint  officers  to  execute  them,  without  any  further 
aid  from  the  freemen,  who  had  thereby  delegated  for  a  short 
period  their  law-making  powers  to  the  assistants. 

The  freemen  were  then  few,  and  possessed  by  a  profound 
sense  of  their-  insufficiency  and  lack  of  qualifications  for 
legislators  (a  feeling  of  self-depreciation  which  has  rarely 
been  known  to  enter  the  human  mind  in  any  previous  or 
subsequent  age  in  human  history). 

The  General  Court  in  a  measure  confirmed  the  above  in 
May,  1631,  and  added  to  it  a  provision,  annexed  to  and  in 


1631-32]         UNION   OF   CHURCH   AND   STATE  119 

continuation  of  this  act,  which  has  been  the  subject  of  more 
relentless  criticism  still.  "  And  to  the  end  the  body  of  the 
Commons  may  be  preserved  of  honest  and  good  men,  it  was 
likewise  ordered  and  agreed  that  for  the  time  to  come  no 
man  shall  be  admitted  to  the  freedom  of  this  body  politic, 
but  such  as  are  members  of  some  of  the  churches  within  the 
limits  of  the  same." 1  The  standard  in  Rhode  Island  was 
ownership  of  land.2 

If  the  motive  was  the  one  expressed  in  the  act  itself,  viz. : 
that  the  "  body  of  the  Commons  may  be  preserved  of  hon 
est  and  good  men,"  most  persons,  in  the  light  of  more 
recent  politics,  would  be  inclined  to  approve  of  the  ideal 
aimed  at  by  the  fathers,  even  if  they  could  not  commend 
their  method  of  advance  towards  it.  The  result  of  this  rule 
was  that  in  three  years  there  were  in  the  colony  three  hun 
dred  and  fifty  voters,  while  the  aggregate  population  was 
three  or  possibly  four  thousand  persons. 

The  expediency  of  the  union  of  church  and  state  has  now 
been  under  discussion  many  years,  and  great  light  has  in 
recent  centuries  been  derived  from  the  experience  of  nations, 
both  with  and  without  such  union.  The  Puritans  had  no 
such  experience  to  reveal  the  way  to  them.  Their  ideas  of 
government  were  derived  from  England  and  Holland,  their 
charter,  the  rules  of  the  English  common  law,  and  the  Bible. 

It  certainly  was  not  their  original  purpose  to  use  their 
government  primarily  to  disseminate  new  religious  ideas. 
They  were  considering  only  the  purification  of  the  Church 
of  England.  They  wanted  to  divest  her  of  the  Romish 
traditions  and  usages,  which  in  their  opinion  were  no  essen 
tial  part  of  her,  and  greatly  retarded  her  usefulness.  They 
knew  no  state  without  union  with  religion.  It  does  not  yet 
appear  that  any  state  can  survive  without  religion.3  The 
experiment  was  indeed  attempted  in  the  French  Revolution, 

1  Mass.  Col.  Rec.,  i.  87 ;  Story  on  the  Const,  of  the  United  States, 
ii.  §§  1846-1850. 

2  Narr.  and  Critical  Hist,  of  America,  iii.  338. 

3  De  Tocqueville's  Democ.  in  Amer.  i.  44,  334,  337. 


120  THOMAS   DUDLEY  [CH.  xi 

and  signally  failed.  The  church  should  be  secondary  and 
subject  to  the  temporal  power  in  civil  matters,  but  in  its  own 
realm  in  matters  of  belief,  conscience,  and  worship,  it  should 
be  supreme.  This  should  be  accorded  to  all  alike,  to  indi 
vidual  men,  to  associations  whose  usages  and  services  are 
conformable  to  good  morals  and  pure  government,  and  the 
civil  authority  must  in  all  cases  be  the  final  judge  in  this 
cause.  It  is  an  immense  satisfaction  that  in  the  highest 
form  of  spiritual  worship  no  man  or  court  has  power  to  inter 
vene  or  intercept  the  service.  It  has  been  claimed,  with 
much  reason,  that  since  the  ministers  received  the  various 
candidates  into  the  church  membership,  the  power  was  ulti 
mately  reposed  in  them  to  determine  who  should  be  eligible 
as  freemen  and  entitled  to  vote.  It  must  not  be  overlooked, 
however,  that  the  personal  interests  of  the  ministers  lay  in 
the  direction  of  extending  their  membership  and  the  growth 
of  their  flocks.  It  does  not  appear  that  any  were  excluded 
from  entrance  to  the  church  on  political  grounds.  And  if 
there  were  to  be  a  religious  test  as  a  gateway  to  politics, 
it  may  be  reasonably  doubted  whether  anything  more  just 
could  have  been  substituted  for  the  learned,  sagacious  min 
isters  who  were  busy  sifting  the  population  to  discover  the 
willing,  obedient,  and  elect. 

These  Puritans,  in  their  true  allegiance  to  the  English 
church  and  throne  at  the  start,  had  not  yet  thought  of  a 
separation  of  church  and  state.  Their  ministers  were  learned 
in  the  Scriptures,  which  they  regarded  as  the  great  ultimate 
source  of  law  and  justice,  and  some  of  them  were  also  the 
most  learned  men  in  the  English  common  law  in  the  col 
ony.  And  while  they  were  not  received  into  the  positions  of 
assistants,  or  of  the  Commons,  or  into  executive  or  judicial 
stations,  they  were  exceedingly  well  prepared  to  instruct 
and  inform  the  government  and  all  persons  interested  as  to 
the  meaning  of  Biblical  and  common  law. 

Disability  to  hold  office  in  England  continued  against  Jews 
to  the  middle  of  this  century,  and  against  Catholics  and 
Friends  to  the  early  part  of  it.  The  first  legislative  body  in 


1631-32]    PURITAN   ACTION   IN  PART  VINDICATED     121 

America,  which  sat  at  Jamestown,  July  30,  1619,  was  elected 
by  all  the  adult  male  inhabitants  of  the  colony,  a  policy  which 
has  continued  nearly  everywhere,  to  the  extent  of  excluding 
both  from  the  franchise  and  from  public  office  the  women, 
one  half  of  the  population  of  the  country,  who  bear  their 
share  of  the  burdens  of  government.  The  political  dogma 
that  the  franchise,  or  the  right  to  hold  political  office,  is  a 
natural  right,  like  life,  has  received  in  this  country  almost 
universal  disapproval.  It  is  declared  not  to  be  a  right  for 
anybody,  but  a  privilege  conferred  upon  persons  and  classes 
by  the  state,  according  to  its  own  will,  in  the  most  arbitrary 
exercise  of  its  own  judgment.  Not  even  the  Constitution  of 
the  United  States  guarantees  the  right  to  vote.  It  is  no 
privilege  or  immunity  secured  to  American  citizenship  by 
virtue  of  that  document.  If  this  is  the  correct  theory  in  this 
matter,  then  it  follows  that  the  General  Court  of  Massachu 
setts,  on  May  30,  1631,  was  both  by  precedent  and  subse 
quent  franchise  fully  justified  in  the  exercise  of  its  discretion, 
in  saying  that  none  but  church  members  shall  be  admitted 
into  the  body  politic.  What  better  class  was  there  in  the 
colony, -if  they  were  to  select  one?  Their  work  for  thirty 
years  justifies  the  wisdom  of  their  choice.  They  did  unwise 
and  unjust  things  during  that  period,  we  freely  admit ;  but 
their  great  constructive  work  nevertheless  remains  as  a 
monument  of  their  integrity,  breadth  of  understanding,  and 
enlightened  conceptions  of  the  state  which  was  gradually 
being  evolved  under  their  guiding  hands. 

It  is  popular  in  some  quarters  now  to  characterize  their 
action  as  intolerant,  bigoted,  and  despotic.  But  it  bears  the 
mark  of  none  of  these  things.  They  then  had,  as  we  now 
have,  a  numerous  population  of  recent  immigrants  who  had 
no  conception  of  the  importance  and  magnitude  of  this  great 
undertaking  in  the  interests  of  humanity,  who  were  only 
adventurers  seeking  opportunities  to  secure  a  living,  without 
interest  in  politics  or  religion,  or  the  fortunes  of  the  enter 
prise  beyond  themselves. 

A   portion  of  our  recent  population  from  Asia  we  have 


122  THOMAS   DUDLEY  [CH.  xi 

found  undesirable,  and  have  limited  further  immigration. 
We  have  proceeded  in  like  manner  with  the  paupers  of 
Europe,  and  have  assured  their  governments  that  they  are 
in  no  way  useful  to  us,  and  have  requested  them  to  retain 
them  at  home.  We  are  aware  that  the  people  excluded  by 
the  Puritans  were  as  a  rule  respectable,  neither  paupers  nor 
inferior  races  ;  but  the  right  to  exclude  is  of  universal  appli 
cation.  And  still  our  shores  are  swarming  with  poor,  igno 
rant,  and  often  criminal  immigrants,  whom  we  cannot  in  three 
generations  assimilate  with  our  native  population  to  become 
worthy,  educated  American  citizens.  Are  we  required  in  the 
name  of  our  religion,  of  justice,  humanity,  or  right  reason,  to 
place  political  power,  the  government  of  ourselves,  of  our 
families,  and  the  fortunes  of  our  country  in  the  keeping  of 
these  persons,  and  to  turn  over  our  institutions,  the  most 
sacred  hope  of  mankind,  to  these  miserable  creatures,  who 
were  the  very  peril  of  government  at  home  before  they  came, 
the  material  for  mobs  and  revolutions  the  world  over  ?  Does 
not  all  history  justify  the  exercise  of  arbitrary  discretion  by 
our  fathers  ?  The  Puritans  had  no  confidence  in  these  people 
without  religion,  and  with  a  conviction  that  posses-sed  our 
fathers  also  in  the  days  of  Washington,  they  said,  the  foun 
dation  of  this  nation  must  be  laid  upon  the  intelligence  and 
virtue  of  the  rulers.  And  what  safer  line  could  they  draw 
between  the  classes  of  population,  to  secure  intelligence  and 
virtue  in  the  rulers,  than  to  set  apart  the  church  members, 
who  had  this  magnificent  undertaking  at  heart  as  the  mere 
enterprising  fortune-hunter  had  not  ?  The  whole  matter  is 
creditable  to  the  thoughtful  foresight  and  prudent  wisdom  of 
these  wonderful,  divinely  guided  men,  the  founders  of  Massa 
chusetts.  No  man  can  successfully  take  exception  to  this 
fundamental  action  of  the  Puritans  until  he  is  prepared  to 
show  that  the  world  would  have  been  in  a  better  condition 
if  this  colony  had  been  planted  by  other  persons,  of  other 
tenets,  other  education,  and  other  convictions  —  a  thing 
which  we  believe,  with  all  earnestness,  to  be  impossible. 


CHAPTER  XII 

IT  may  justly  be  accounted  a  distinguished  honor  to  have 
been  the  founder  of  a  city  which  contains  within  its  limits 
the  greatest  university  in  America ;  which  for  two  and  one- 
half  centuries  has  been  incessantly  pouring  its  healthful 
stream  of  influence  into  the  life-currents  of  our  republic; 
which  also  has  drawn  into  its  inclosure  scholars,  poets,  ora 
tors,  and  statesmen,  who  have  been  great  literary,  social,  and 
political  leaders  in  our  history,  and  have  contributed  vastly 
to  the  best  quality  of  our  national  character  and  literature. 
Dudley  and  his  son-in-law,  Bradstreet,  were  the  first  to  settle 
at  Cambridge,  in  the  spring  of  I63I.1  Dudley  was  then 
the  more  eminent  of  the  two,  and  manifested  such  zeal  in 
securing  the  residence  of  the  governor  and  assistants  at 
Newtown,  both  before  and  after  his  own  settlement  there, 
that  he  seems  entitled  to  the  ever-increasing  merit  of  being 
the  founder  of  the  University  City  on  the  Charles  River. 
His  house  was  placed  between  the  river  and  the  present  site 
of  the  university,  at  the  northwesterly  corner  of  Dunster 
and  South  streets,  near  its  southern  termination  at  Marsh 
Lane.2  It  was  very  near  to  the  first  house  for  public  worship, 
erected  in  1632  (with  a  bell  on  it),  on  the  corner  of  Dunster 
and  Mt.  Auburn  streets.  It  is  probable  that  neither  was 
the  chimney  built  of  wood  nor  the  roof  covered  with  thatch, 
which  were  materials  often  used  for  such  purposes.3 

The  capital  was  retained  in  Boston  until  Dudley  was 
chosen  governor,  May  14,  1634,  in  place  of  Winthrop,  but 
upon  this  change  it  was  at  once  removed  to  Cambridge,  and 

1  Paige's  Hist.  Camb.,  8. 

2  Holmes's  Hist.  Camb.,  8,  note. 

3  Paige's  Hist.  Camb.,  247 ;  Winthrop's  Journal,  i.  *49« 


I24  THOMAS   DUDLEY  [CH.  xn 

all  the  Courts  were  holden  there  for  two  years,  during  the 
administration  of  both  Governor  Dudley  and  of  Governor 
Haynes,  and  until  the  election  of  Governor  Vane,  in  1636.* 

Governor  Winthrop,  and  the  greater  part  of  the  assistants, 
in  1631,  did  not  make  Cambridge  their  place  of  residence, 
yet  they  seem  to  have  regarded  it  on  the  whole,  being  more 
interior,  as  a  safer  place  for  the  capital  in  case  of  danger 
from  the  sea.  It  is  in  any  event  a  notable  fact,  whatever 
their  reasons  might  have  been,  that  they  caused  George 
Maisters  to  make  a  water  passage  by  the  enlargement  of  a 
creek  from  Charles  River  up  into  the  heart  of  the  settle 
ment.  This  waterway  was  made  twelve  feet  broad  and 
seven  feet  deep,  and  on  the  5th  of  July,  1631,  there  was 
levied  on  the  other  towns,  excepting  Newtown,  the  sum  of 
thirty  pounds  to  pay  the  cost  thereof.2  "This  canal  still 
exists  on  the  westerly  side  of  College  Wharf,  from  Charles 
River  nearly  to  South  Street.  It  was  a  natural  creek,  en 
larged  and  deepened  thus  far,  from  which  point,  turning 
westerly,  it  extended  along  the  southerly  and  westerly  sides 
of  South  and  Eliot  streets,  and  crossed  Brattle  Street,  where 
the  town  ordered  a  causeway  and  foot-bridge  to  be  con 
structed,  Jan.  4,  1635-36."  3  Passengers  and  freight  could 
by  this  channel  be  conveyed  to  almost  every  door  in  the 
settlement,  in  boats  from  the  sea,  by  its  connection  with  the 
river,  as  the  houses  and  homes  of  Venice  are  approached  by 
canals.  The  residence  of  Governor  Dudley  seems  to  have 
been  beside  this  watercourse,  near  its  greatest  curve.  Here, 
in  1633,  might  often  have  been  seen  John  Haynes,  who 
was  the  third  governor  of  Massachusetts  and  the  first  gov 
ernor  of  Connecticut ;  the  Rev.  Thomas  Hooker,  who  was 
the  first  minister  of  Cambridge,  and  as  a  pioneer  led  his 
flock  in  1636  to  the  settlement  of  Connecticut  and  who,  it 
is  said,  more  than  "any  other  man,  deserves  to  be  called 
the  father  of  American  democracy ; "  and  with  these  two 
distinguished  founders  of  states,  also  Thomas  Dudley,  taking 

1  Mass.  Col.  Rec.,  i.  116,  173.  2  Ib.,  i.  88,  90. 

8  Paige's  Hist.  Camb.,  9,  note. 


1631-32]  PALISADE   IN   CAMBRIDGE  125 

boat  for  the  Court  in  Boston,  or  for  errands  of  business  or 
deeds  of  charity,  or  on  missions  of  mercy  to  neighboring 
settlements,  for  Haynes  and  Hooker  sojourned  on  their  first 
arrival  from  England,  in  1633,  at  the  home  of  Dudley,1  until 
they  had  homes  of  their  own  at  or  before  1635,  when  they 
are  known  to  have  built  separate  houses. 

But  the  public  interest  in  Cambridge,  or  possibly  the 
safety  of  the  colony  at  large,  called  forth  a  more  munificent 
expenditure  there  by  the  Court  of  Assistants,  February  3, 
163 1.2  "It  was  ordered  there  should  be  threescore  pounds 
levied  out  of  the  several  plantations  within  the  limits  of  this 
patent,  towards  the  making  of  a  palisade  about  Newtowne, 
viz.,  Watertown  8£,  Newtowne  3^,  Charlestown  7^,  Med- 
ford  $£,  Saugus  and  Marble  Harbor  6£,  Salem  4^  IDS., 
Boston  8£,  Roxbury  f£,  Dorchester  £7,  Weymouth  5^, 
Winisemet  303."  The  influential  leadership  of  Governor 
Dudley  in  the  affairs  of  Cambridge  is  shown  by  his  impal 
ing  there  a  thousand  acres  of  land  without  the  order  of 
court,  to  protect  the  inhabitants  and  their  flocks  from  the 
ravages  of  wild  beasts,  and  the  sudden  and  unexpected  at 
tacks  of  savages.3  "This  fortification  was  actually  made; 
and  the  fosse  which  was  then  dug  around  the  town,  was  in 
some  places  visible  in  this  century.  It  commenced  at  Brick 
Wharf  (originally  called  Windmill  Hill),  and  ran  along  the 
northern  side  of  the  present  Common  in  Cambridge,  and 
through  what  was  then  a  thicket,  but  now  constitutes  a  part 
of  the  cultivated  grounds  of  Nathaniel  Jarvis,  beyond  which 
it  cannot  be  distinctly  traced.  It  inclosed  above  a  thousand 
acres."  4 

We  find  a  more  complete  account  in  Paige's  "  History 

1  Winthrop's  Journal,  i.  *ii8.  2  Mass.  Col.  Rec.,  i.  93. 

3  Winthrop,  i.  *8s. 

4  Colonel  T.  W.  Higginson,  the  orator  on  the  two  hundred  and  fiftieth 
anniversary  of  the  settlement  of  Cambridge,  held  December  28,  1880, 
said,  "  It  [Cambridge]  is  to  be  a  fortified  village,  created  after  some 
delays,  and  under  the  inexpressive  name  of  Newtown.     Even  after 
Winthrop  has  abandoned  the  new  settlement,  stout  Dudley  secures  an 
appropriation  of  sixty  pounds  to  build  a '  pallysadoe,  or  stockade,  around 


126  THOMAS   DUDLEY  [CH.  xn 

of  Cambridge,"  page  10,  note,  as  follows  :  "  The  location  of 
the  greater  part  of  this  fence,  or  'pale,'  is  designated  with 
tolerable  accuracy  by  the  ancient  records  of  possessions  and 
conveyances.  Commencing  in  the  present  college  yard, 
near  the  northwesterly  angle  of  Gore  Hall,  and  extending 
eastwardly,  it  passed  very  near  the  junction  of  Ellsworth 
Avenue  with  Cambridge  Street  to  the  line  between  Cam 
bridge  and  Charlestown  (now  Somerville),  at  its  angle  on 
Line  Street,  near  Cambridge  Street,  and  thence  followed 
that  line  to  the  creek,  a  few  rods  easterly  from  the  track  of 
the  Grand  Junction  Railroad.  Commencing  again  at  the 
point  first  mentioned,  the  fence  extended  southwardly  to 
the  marsh  near  the  junction  of  Holyoke  Place  with  Mount 
Auburn  Street.  The  kind  of  fence  erected  in  the  colony 
later  is  indicated  in  an  order  passed  Dec.  5,  1636  :  '  That 
the  common  pales  in  all  places,  to  be  made  after  this  day, 
shall  be  done  with  sufficient  posts  and  rails,  and  not  with 
crotches.' '  There  is  a  beautiful  and  picturesque  group  of 
willows  still  standing,  it  is  thought,  as  stated  by  Higginson 
and  others,  on  a  part  of  the  line  of  this  palisade  and  fosse. 
We  have  entered  thus  into  the  several  accounts  of  its  struc 
ture  and  history,  because  it  seems  to  have  been  so  directly 
the  work  of  Dudley,  or  at  least  he  appears  to  have  been  the 

it.'  A  thousand  acres  are  ordered  to  be  thus  impaled  with  trees  set  in 
the  ground ;  a  mile  and  a  half  of  trees  being  thus  placed,  at  the  very 
lowest  estimate  (that  of  Wood),  .  .  .  the  stockade  not  including  the 
side  toward  Charles  River.  What  a  task  for  the  men  of  this  little  set 
tlement  to  fell,  remove,  and  plant  these  thousands  of  trees,  and  to  dig 
round  them  a  fosse  or  trench,  so  well  executed  that  I  remember  parts 
of  it  still  existing  as  a  ditch  in  my  boyhood !  The  willows  on  the  foot 
ball  ground  of  the  students,  at  the  edge  of  Oxford  Street,  are  the  last 
memorial  of  that  great  labor  undertaken  two  centuries  and  a  half  ago. 
.  .  .  The  pallysadoe  keeps  the  new  village  safe."  (Exercises  in  Cele 
brating  the  Two  Hundred  and  Fiftieth  Anniversary  of  the  Settlement 
of  Cambridge,  46,  47.) 

The  identity  of  this  fosse  and  palisade  has  been  questioned,  but  the 
authority  of  Holmes  and  Higginson,  sustained  by  a  clear  tradition 
reaching  over  only  two  centuries  and  a  half,  seems  quite  sufficient. 
(Prince,  ii.  57;  Rev.  Abiel  Holmes's  Hist.  Camb.,  9.) 


1631-32]  PALISADE    IN   CAMBRIDGE  127 

chief  projector.  That  he  had  the  influence  to  carry  the 
Court  of  Assistants  with  him  to  raise  this  large  sum  to  de 
fend  the  plantation  and  the  colony,  and  that  he  had  the 
energy  in  a  public  emergency  to  do  the  needful  service  and 
assume  the  risk  of  being  able  to  convince  his  associates  of 
its  expediency,  are  conclusive  facts  as  to  his  executive  force 
and  weight  of  character  at  this  period  in  the  history  of  the 
colony. 

But  it  is  generally  thought  that  matters  of  far  greater 
importance  than  the  payment  for  the  palisade  resulted  from 
this  action  of  the  assistants.  When  Watertown  received 
the  warrant  for  its  portion  of  this  tax,  "the  pastor  and 
elders,  etc.,  assembled  the  people,  and  delivered  their  opin 
ions  that  it  was  not  safe  to  pay  moneys  after  that  sort,  for 
fear  of  bringing  themselves  and  posterity  into  bondage." 
Here  is  supposed  to  appear  the  right  of  the  more  direct 
representatives  of  the  people  in  the  House  of  Commons  or 
House  of  Representatives  in  the  legislature  to  originate  tax 
bills  and  assessments  of  money.  And  in  confirmation  of 
this  view,  although  the  pastor  of  Watertown  was  immedi 
ately  reduced  to  submission  by  the  Court,  at  the  next  Gen 
eral  Court,  May  9,  i6$2,1  "  It  was  ordered  that  there  should 
be  two  of  every  plantation  appointed  to  confer  with  the 

1  Mr.  J.  A.  Doyle  evidently  regards  Winthrop  as  the  chief  oligarch 
at  the  beginning  of  Massachusetts,  because  he  disposed  of  the  people 
so  summarily  in  the  Watertown  matter  (Winthrop,  i.  *7o),  and  on  other 
occasions  when  they  appealed  to  him  or  to  the  government  (Winthrop, 
i.  *I28,  *I29).  He  says  :  "  We  may  be  sure,  too,  that  in  fact  the  men  of 
Watertown  were  contending  against  an  oligarchical  spirit,  which  was 
probably  made  all  the  more  dangerous  by  the  conspicuous  personal 
merit  of  the  man  in  whom  it  was  embodied."  (The  English  in  Amer., 
i.  140.)  Dudley  was  made  governor  in  1634  by  the  triumphant  party 
which  then  secured  the  law  that  "  none  but  the  General  Court  hath 
power  to  raise  monies  and  taxes."  (Mass.  Col.  Rec.,  i.  117.)  It  seems 
to  us  that  the  word  "  oligarch  "  is  not  justly  applied  here.  The  supreme 
power  was  not  vested  in  a  small  and  exclusive  class,  but  in  all  church 
members.  If  it  be  said  that  at  one  time  they  constituted  a  small  por 
tion  of  the  population,  the  same  is  true,  in  the  United  States  to-day :  the 
women,  minors,  unnaturalized  persons,  and  others,  have  civil  rights, 


128  THOMAS   DUDLEY  [CH.  xn 

Court  about  raising  of  public  stock ; "  and  singularly  enough, 
the  names  of  Oldeham  and  Masters,  both  of  Watertown, 
were  the  first  on  the  committee.  Watertown  was  vindi 
cated,  truth  crushed  to  earth  had  arisen,  and  Prince  says 
an  "  embryo  parliament  "  had  appeared.1  The  incipient  idea 
of  a  House  of  Representatives  in  the  legislature  of  Mas 
sachusetts  had  been  evolved  through  Dudley's  venture  to 
impale  a  thousand  acres  at  Cambridge,  and  trust  the  Court 
and  people  to  indemnify  him.  But  it  did  not  extend  to  a 
share  in  the  making  of  laws  until  May  14,  1634. 

All  this  jealousy  of  the  government  had  resulted  from 
the  power  given  by  the  freemen,  October  19,  1630,  to  the 
governor  and  assistants  to  make  laws  and  choose  officers  to 
execute  them.2  Experience  with  new  power  in  the  hands  of 
the  assistants  almost  at  once  aroused  the  suspicion  of  the 
freemen  that  they  had  committed  an  error,  and  rendered 
them  jealous  of  the  exercise  of  authority.  Savage  and  others 
seem  to  consider  the  action  of  the  assistants  as  a  usurpation, 
unauthorized  by  the  charter.3  We  have  already  considered 
this  question,  but  a  few  new  observations  are  desirable  in 
this  connection. 

It  would  appear  that  the  views  of  the  Court  at  that  time, 
giving  contemporary  opinions,  are  entitled  to  much  weight, 
although  influenced  a  little,  possibly,  by  a  desire  to  sustain 
themselves  and  their  own  action  ;  yet  from  what  we  know  of 
them,  we  can  believe  that  their  chief  solicitude  was  to  be 
right,  not  only  because  of  their  great  personal  integrity,  but 
because  every  act  and  every  secret  thing  was  in  constant 

but  not  political  privileges,  and  are  a  large  portion  of  the  population. 
The  representatives  of  the  people  who  make  the  laws  at  present  are 
few  compared  to  the  whole  number;  we  do  not  now  call  them  an  oli 
garchy.  When  in  1632  the  Court  of  Assistants  made  laws  and  appoint 
ments,  it  was  by  the  authority  of  the  General  Court,  as  the  agents  or 
representatives  of  all  the  people  who  had  any  rights  under  the  charter. 
And  opprobrious  epithets  do  not  apply  to  them. 

1  Prince,  ii.  60 ;  Winthrop,  i.  *;o,  *;6 ;  Mass.  Col.  Rec.,  i.  93-95. 

2  Mass.  Col.  Rec.,  i.  79. 

3  Winthrop,  i.  *;o,  note  by  Savage. 


1631-32]    ONE-HOUSE  PARLIAMENT  FOR  ONE  YEAR     129 

danger  of  being  brought  into  vigorous  examination  by  the 
home  government,  and  of  putting  in  peril  the  whole  under 
taking. 

Governor  Winthrop  told  the  people  in  effect  that  they  had 
by  their  own  action  created  a  parliament  of  one  house  for  one 
year,  and  they  must  abide  by  its  action  until  the  time  had 
expired,  when  they  might  change  it,  which  they  did  not  wholly 
until  May  14,  1634*  This  is  said  to  be  in  violation  of  the 
charter,  but  they  were  good  lawyers  and  knew  the  charter.2 
It  distinguishes  Dudley  that  he  became  governor  under  the 
political  change  which  elevated  the  freemen  as  represent 
atives  to  the  legislature. 

There  are  a  few  notes  from  the  town  book  of  Cambridge 

1  Mass.  Col.  Rec.,  i.  118;  Winthrop,  i.  128,  Savage's  note. 

2  The  only  words  of  the  charter  which  appear  to  relate  to  legislative 
action  are  as  follows :    "  That  the  governor,  or,  in   his  absence,  the 
deputy  governor,  of  the  said  company  for  the  time  being,  and  such  of 
the  assistants  and  freemen  of  the  said  company  as  shall  be  present,  or 
the  greater  number  of  them  so  assembled,  whereof  the  governor  or 
deputy  governor  and   six  of  the  assistants,  at  the  least  to  be  seven, 
shall  have  full  power  and  authority  to  choose,  nominate,  and  appoint 
such  and  so  many  others  as  they  shall  think  fit,  and  that  shall  be  willing 
to  accept  the  same,  to  be  free  of  the  said  company  and  body,  and  them 
into  the  same  to  admit,  and  to  elect  and  constitute  such  officers  as  they 
shall  think  fit  and  requisite  for  the  ordering,  managing,  and  dispatching 
of  the  affairs  of  the  said  governor  and  company  and  their  successors. 
And  to  make  laws  and  ordinances  for  the  good  and  welfare  of  the  said 
company,  and  for  the  government  and  ordering  of  the  said  land  and 
plantation,  and  the  people  inhabiting  and  to  inhabit  the  same,  as  to  them 
from  time  to  time  shall  be  thought  meet." 

Thus  it  would  appear  that  the  governor  or  deputy  and  six  of  the  as 
sistants  were  fully  authorized  and  empowered  under  the  charter  to  elect 
freemen  and  to  make  laws,  order  as  to  the  land,  and  govern  the  people. 
That  there  was  no  law  against  the  participation  of  all  the  freemen  in 
legislative  action,  nor  on  the  other  hand  was  there  any  law  requiring  them 
to  participate,  or  rendering  the  laws  or  ordinances  invalid  if  they  were 
not  present  by  themselves  or  their  representatives,  appears  clear.  There 
seems  to  have  been  in  the  case  considered  the  required  number  of  seven, 
therefore  their  action  was  valid.  As  to  its  expediency,  there  may  have 
been,  and  may  still  be,  reasonable  doubt,  but  we  can  discover  none  as  to 
the  validity  of  the  action  of  the  assistants  in  assessing  the  tax. 


I3o  THOMAS   DUDLEY  [CH.  xn 

which  have  a  special  interest  in  the  daily  life  of  Dudley  on 
and  after  1632-33.  It  is  still  extant,  and  begins  with  "An 
agreement  made  by  general  consent,  for  a  monthly  meeting. 
Imprimis,  That  every  person  undersubscribed  shall  [meet] 
every  first  Monday  in  every  month,  within  [the]  meeting 
house,  in  the  afternoon,  within  half  [an  hour]  after  the  ring 
ing  of  the  bell ; l  and  that  every  [one]  that  makes  not  his  per 
sonal  appearance  there  [and]  continues  there,  without  leave 
from  the  [  ]  until  the  meeting  be  ended,  shall  forfeit 
[for  each]  default  xii.  pence :  and  if  it  be  not  paid  [before  the 
next]  meeting,  then  to  double  it,  and  so  until  [it  be  paid]." 
The  historian  of  Cambridge  says  that  "  although  a  general 
subscription  seems  to  have  been  contemplated,  only  two  sig 
natures  are  appended,  namely,  Thomas  Dudley  and  John 
Haynes ;  and  Mr.  Haynes  must  have  subscribed  his  name 
several  months  after  the  order  was  adopted,  as  he  did  not 
arrive  until  Sept.  3,  1633.  At  the  first  meeting  holden  in 
pursuance  of  this  'agreement,'  several  municipal  arrange 
ments  were  made  to  secure  the  beauty  and  safety  of  the 
town,  to  wit :  Jan.  7,  1632-3.  *  It  is  ordered,  that  no  person 
whatever  [shall  set]  up  any  house  in  the  bounds  of  this 
town  [without]  leave  from  the  major  part.  Further,  it  is 
agreed,  by  a  joint  consent,  [that  the]  town  shall  not  be 
enlarged  until  all  [the  vacant]  places  be  filled  with  houses. 
Further,  it  is  agreed,  that  all  the  houses  [within]  the  bounds 
of  the  town  shall  be  covered  [with]  slate  or  board,  and  not 
with  thatch.'  " 

It  must  assist  us  very  much  in  discovering  how  fully  the 
influence  of  Governor  Dudley  entered  into  the  plans  and 
government  of  Cambridge  at  its  very  beginning,  if  we  note 
his  words  in  his  letter  to  the  Countess  of  Lincoln,  March  28, 
1631,  on  this  subject:  "For  the  prevention  whereof  in  our 
new  town,  intended  this  summer  to  be  builded,  we  have 
ordered  that  no  man  there  shall  build  his  chimney  with 
wood,  nor  cover  his  house  with  thatch."  2  .  .  .  "Further  it  is 

1  Page  123  of  this  volume. 

a  Young's  Chron.,  339;  Paige's  Hist.  Camb.,  17,  iC. 


1632-33]  TOWN   BOOK   OF   CAMBRIDGE  131 

ordered  that  all  [the  houses  shall]  range  even,  and  stand 
just  six  [feet  on  each  man's]  own  ground  from  the  street." 
Dudley  is  the  only  one  who  had  subscribed  at  the  date  of 
the  several  orders  herein  mentioned.  This  provision  about 
setting  houses  back  from  the  street,  although  not  far,  is 
an  evidence  of  his  and  their  taste  and  regard  to  picturesque 
effects,  in  the  early  beginning,  in  the  laying  out  of  that  little 
town,  which  was  destined  to  become  a  renowned  and  beauti 
ful  city.  The  town  was  constructed  from  the  first  with  a 
view  to  elegance,  the  streets  being  arranged  in  nearly  paral 
lel  lines,  the  houses  regularly  placed,  the  whole  symmetrical 
and  compact,  suitable  for  the  future  seat  of  government. 
It  was  bounded  "  northerly  by  Harvard  Street  and  Square, 
westerly  by  Brattle  Square  and  Eliot  Street,  southerly  by 
Eliot  and  South  streets,  and  easterly  by  Holyoke  Street, 
which  was  then  very  crooked."  * 

William  Wood,  who  was  in  the  colony  the  first  year,  in  his 
"New  England's  Prospect,"  says  :  "This  place  was  first  in 
tended  for  a  city ;  but  upon  more  serious  considerations  it 
was  not  thought  so  fit :  being  too  far  from  the  sea  being  the 
greatest  inconvenience  it  hath.  This  is  one  of  the  neatest 
and  best  compacted  towns  in  New  England,  having  many 
fair  structures,  with  many  handsome  contrived  streets.  The 
inhabitants,  most  of  them,  are  very  rich,  and  well  stored  with 
cattle  of  all  sorts,  having  many  hundred  acres  of  ground 
paled  in  with  one  general  fence,  which  is  about  a  mile  and  a 
half  long,  which  secures  all  their  weaker  cattle  from  the  wild 
beasts."2 

It  is  probable  that  while  Wood  presents  in  the  above 
extract  Governor  Winthrop's  reason  for  his  preference  for 
Boston,  so  Johnson,  in  his  "  Wonder- Working  Providence," 
sets  forth  Governor  Dudley's  opposite  choice  as  follows : 
"Wherefore  they  rather  made  choice  to  enter  farther  among 
the  Indians,  than  hazard  the  fury  of  malignant  adversaries, 
who  in  a  rage  might  pursue  them,  and  therefore  chose  a 

1  Paige's  Hist.  Camb.,  18,  note  i. 

2  Young's  Chron.,  402. 


132  THOMAS   DUDLEY  [CH.  xn 

place  situated  on  Charles  River,  between  Charles  Town  and 
Watertown,  where  they  erected  a  town  called  New  Town, 
now  named  Cambridge.  ...  It  hath  well  ordered  streets 
comely  completed  with  the  fair  building  of  Harvard  College, 
their  first  pastor  was  the  faithful  and  laborious  Mr.  Hooker, 
whose  books  are  of  great  request  among  the  faithful  people 
of  Christ."1 

This  was  probably  one  of  Dudley's  reasons,  as  we  have 
before  mentioned,  for  the  earnest  effort  which  he  made  to 
establish  the  capital  at  Cambridge.  There  are  very  few 
capital  cities  in  the  world  which  are  not  situated  on  rivers  or 
bays  less  exposed  from  the  sea  than  Boston ;  the  anxiety  of 
Dudley  in  this  instance  is  therefore  no  matter  of  surprise. 

The  New  England  town  and  town  meeting  have  for  many 
years  justly  received  a  great  amount  of  careful  consideration 
from  students  of  American  history.  The  town  has  been 
sometimes  designated  as  the  unit  in  our  system  of  govern 
ment.  Any  description  of  Cambridge  which  overlooked  the 
political  organization  of  the  town  would  therefore  be  very 
incomplete. 

Power  was  early  in  1634  delegated  to  a  few  persons,  first 
styled  " townsmen,"  later  "selectmen,"  to  transact  "the 
whole  business  of  the  town."  February  3,  1634-35,  "At  a 
general  meeting  of  the  whole  town,  it  was  agreed  upon  by 
a  joint  consent,  that  seven  men  should  be  chosen  to  do  the 
whole  business  of  the  town,  and  so  to  continue  until  the  first 
Monday  in  November  next,  and  until  new  be  chosen  in  their 
room  :  so  there  was  then  elected  and  chosen  John  Haynes, 
Esq.,  Mr.  Symon  Bradstreet,"  and  five  other  persons.  Dud 
ley  is  not  on  this  list  because  of  more  exalted  public  duties. 
He  was  a  few  days  later  elected  governor  of  the  colony. 
There  is  little  reason  to  doubt  that  he  had  an  important 
share  in  the  doings  of  the  meeting.  At  this  meeting, 
"  It  is  further  ordered,  by  a  joint  consent,  [that]  whatsoever 
these  townsmen,  thus  chosen,  shall  do,  in  the  compass  of 
their  time,  shall  stand  in  as  full  force  as  if  the  whole  town 
1  Wonder- Working  Providence,  chap,  xxviii.  61,  Pool's  ed. 


1632]  DUDLEY   DEPUTY   GOVERNOR  133 

did  the  same,  either  for  making  of  new  orders,  or  altering 
of  old  ones."  * 

The  Court  in  June,  1632,  ordered  "that  there  shall  be  two 
hundred  acres  of  land  set  out  by  marks  and  bounds,  on  the 
west  side  of  Charles  River,  over  against  the  New  Town,  to 
enjoy  to  Thomas  Dudley  Esq.,  deputy  governor,  to  him  and 
his  heirs  forever."  2  This  land  was  mostly  included  within  a 
great  bend  of  the  Charles  River,  directly  south  of  the  head 
quarters  of  General  Washington  on  Brattle  Street,  afterwards 
from  183710  1882  the  home  of  the  poet  Longfellow,  who 
has  hallowed  this  turn  in  the  river. 

Dudley  was  again  chosen  to  the  place  of  deputy  governor, 
May  9,  1632,  which  shows  that  although  he  had  aroused  the 
solicitude  of  Watertown  and  of  the  rest  of  the  colony  by 
impaling  Cambridge  at  the  public  cost,  he  was  nevertheless 
popular,  and  had  public  confidence.  We  do  not  overlook  the 
oft-asserted  opinion  of  persons  who  seem  to  think  that  the 
magistrates  combined  to  retain  the  offices  in  their  immediate 
possession,  and  that  sometimes  it  was  fortune,  more  than 
merit  or  popularity,  which  secured  the  leading  positions  to 
these  men.  But  if  the  favor  of  Dudley  with  the  people  at 
this  period  is  questioned  without  reason,  very  soon  after  this 
time  it  was  clearly  in  the  ascendant,  and  he  was  in  the  full 
tide  of  public  regard. 

1  Paige's  Hist.  Camb.,  21. 

2  Mass.  Col.  Rec.,  i.  96. 


CHAPTER  XIII 

THE  Rev.  Mr.  Wilson,  minister  of  Boston,  made  a  visit  to 
England  in  the  spring  of  1631,  and  in  that  connection  we 
make  the  following  quotation  from  Winthrop,  i.  *5O,  viz.  : 
"About  ten  of  the  clock  Mr.  Coddington  and  Mr.  Wilson, 
and  divers  of  the  congregation,  met  at  the  governor's,  and 
there  Mr.  Wilson,  praying  and  exhorting  the  congregation 
to  love,  etc.,  commended  to  them  the  exercise  of  prophecy  in 
his  absence,  and  designed  those  whom  he  thought  most  fit 
for  it,  viz.,  the  Governor  Winthrop,  Mr.  Dudley  and  Mr.  Now- 
ell  the  elder."  It  is  evidently  the  opinion  of  Mr.  Paige  that 
there  were  no  meetings  "held  in  Cambridge  for  religious 
worship"  before  August  14,  1632.  We  may  understand  him 
to  mean  that  there  was  no  regularly  established  church  ser 
vice.  We  may  easily  suppose,  with  no  other  authority  for  it 
than  this  quotation  from  Winthrop,  that  Dudley,  and  possibly 
all  of  the  settlers  of  Cambridge,  attended  service  at  the  First 
Church  in  Boston  during  their  first  year  of  residence  at  New 
Town.  The  chief  importance  of  this  passage  is  its  high  testi 
mony  to  the  exemplary  and  religious  character  of  Dudley. 
He  certainly  could  not  have  been  one  of  the  three  most  fit 
to  preach  in  Boston  unless  either  he  was  a  very  good  man,  or 
the  average  moral  and  religious  condition  of  the  inhabitants 
was  of  so  low  a  grade  that  good  men  were  wanting,  which 
we  are  not  prepared  to  believe.  Because  if  Winthrop  was  in 
fact  the  only  really  good  man  in  Boston  at  that  time,  since 
Wilson  ruled  in  three  as  the  best,  and  Savage  has  excluded 
two  of  these,  which  leaves  Winthrop  alone,  then  there  truly 
was  a  nearer  resemblance  between  Boston  and  Sodom,  which 
had  not  ten  righteous  men,  than  has  been  heretofore  sus 
pected.  We  can,  with  great  consideration  for  Mr.  James 


1631]       SAVAGE'S   STRICTURES   UPON    DUDLEY  135 

Savage,  be  convinced  that  he  truly  thought  that  the  "  in 
structions  of  Dudley  and  Nowell  were  probably  rendered  less 
serviceable  by  their  severe  tempers  than  the  mild  wisdom  of 
Winthrop."  Who  has  given  evidence  of  the  ungoverned 
rage  of  Dudley  except  Winthrop  himself,  and  in  matters 
where  he  himself  was  a  party  and  a  rival  ? 

Yet,  strange  to  say,  Savage  coldly  depreciated  Dudley. 
We  should  expect  Savage  to  be  partial  to  Winthrop ;  we 
should  expect  him  to  proclaim  that,  "  Where  MacGregor 
sits,  there  is  the  head  of  the  table."  But  prejudice  we  should 
not  look  for  in  him,  and  do  not  care  to  assume  it.  Boling- 
broke  once  said  of  prejudice,  "  Some  must  labor  on  in  a 
maze  of  error  because  they  have  wandered  there  too  long  to 
find  their  way  out." 

The  character  which  Savage  has  attributed  to  Dudley  we 
have  clearly  shown  in  foregoing  pages  is  utterly  inconsistent 
with  his  record.  He  was  a  man  of  warm  heart  and  affec 
tions,  tender  towards  his  children,  and  the  poor  and  suffering. 
When  he  had  judgment  against  Governor  Winthrop  in  court, 
and  might  have  enforced  it  against  him,  he  would  not  do  it, 
and  freely  gave  to  him  the  amount.  Did  that  seem  penuri 
ous  in  him  ?  When  Governor  Winthrop  adroitly  presented 
him  with  hogs  to  win  his  friendship,  he  tenderly  responded 
to  the  act  of  friendship,  but  paid  for  the  hogs.  Did  that 
seem  to  be  penurious  ?  If  he  had  been  a  selfish,  sordid  man, 
he  never  would  have  crossed  the  ocean,  and  devoted  the 
remnant  of  life  to  Massachusetts. 

If  it  should  appear  that  he  spoke  courageously  and  directly 
what  he  thought,  in  the  cause  in  hearing,  we  ought  to  honor 
him  for  his  honesty.  We  admire  transparent  character,  up 
rightness,  and  courage  of  convictions,  in  official  station  and 
in  private  life.  Heartless  courtesy,  the  robes  pretense  is 
wearing,  and  all  the  panoply  of  false  life  and  falsehood  are 
alike  hateful  to  honest  men. 

Roger  Williams,  the  founder  of  Rhode  Island,  arrived  in 
Boston,  February  5,  1631,  and  Winthrop  says,  "At  a  Court 
holden  at  Boston  (upon  information  to  the  governor  that 


136  THOMAS   DUDLEY  [CH.  xm 

they  of  Salem  had  called  Mr.  Williams  to  the  office  of 
teacher)  a  letter  was  written  from  the  Court  to  Mr.  Endicott 
to  this  effect :  '  That  whereas  Mr.  Williams  had  refused  to 
join  with  the  congregation  at  Boston,  because  they  would  not 
make  a  public  declaration  of  their  repentance  for  having  com 
munion  with  the  Church  of  England,  while  they  lived  there ; 
and  besides  had  declared  his  opinion,  that  the  magistrate 
might  not  punish  the  breach  of  the  Sabbath,  nor  any  other 
offense,  as  it  was  a  breach  of  the  first  table  ;  therefore  they 
marveled  they  would  choose  him  without  advising  with  the 
Council ;  and  withal  desiring  him,  that  they  would  forbear  to 
proceed  till  they  had  conferred  about  it.' '  Men  who  all  their 
lives  had  fellowshiped  with  excellent  religious  people  of  the 
same  tenets  and  creed  as  their  own,  who  had  not  repented  of 
that  earlier  connection,  were  unworthy  of  him,  and  repudiated 
by  him.  It  was  not  enough  that  they  had  placed  the  ocean 
between  them  and  their  former  associates,  or  even  that  possi 
bly  in  some  instances  they  silently  regarded  it  a  misfortune 
ever  to  have  known  their  church  brethren  in  Europe,  but  he 
required  a  public  avowal  of  repentance  for  their  innocent  and 
no  doubt  very  useful  church  connection.  This  was  a  test  of 
soul-liberty,  not  by  the  magistrate,  but  by  the  priest,  who  is 
quite  as  dangerous  to  it.  The  next  teaching  by  this  remark 
able  man  is  also  a  little  strange,  viz.  :  "  That  the  breach  of 
the  first  table  of  the  Law  the  magistrate  might  not  punish." 
The  first  table  of  the  Law  is  as  follows  :  — 

"  i.  Thou  shalt  have  no  other  God  before  me. 

"  2.  Thou  shalt  not  make  to  thee  any  graven  image. 

"  3.  Thou  shalt  not  take  the  name  of  Jehovah  thy  God  in  vain. 

"  4.  Thou  shalt  remember  the  Sabbath  day,  to  keep  it  holy. 

"  5.  Thou  shalt  honor  thy  father  and  thy  mother."  1 

The  first  four  precepts  forbid  idolatry  or  atheism,  perjury, 
blasphemy,  and  Sabbath-breaking. 

And  we  are  now  so  averse  to  this  sort  of  liberty,  and  to 
this  indifference  to  religious  precepts,  that  there  are  well 

1  Exodus  xx. 


1631-32]    ROGER  WILLIAMS  AND  HIS  TEACHINGS         137 

recognized  statutes  in  force  for  the  punishment  of  most  of 
these  offenses  on  our  books  to-day.  So  Williams  was  not 
only  in  advance  of  the  Puritans,  but  away  ahead  of,  or  behind 
this  generation  also.  We  cannot  ourselves  complain  of  the 
Puritans. 

Massachusetts  has  a  statute  against  perjury,  and  so  has 
Rhode  Island.  Massachusetts  has  a  statute  against  blas 
phemy,  and  so  has  Rhode  Island.  Massachusetts  has  a 
statute  against  Sabbath-breaking,  and  so  has  Rhode  Island. 
Blasphemy  is  indictable  at  common  law.1  The  same  author 
says  in  effect  that  there  is  reason  to  believe  that  Sabbath- 
breaking  is  a  common  law  offense.2  But  he  says  further  that 
"the  Lord's  Day  is  so  fully  enforced  by  statutes,  both  here 
and  in  England,  that  it  is  of  little  importance  to  inquire  about 
indictments  at  common  law."  The  consensus  of  opinion, 
with  two  and  one  half  centuries  added,  is  against  Williams.3 

It  will  always  be  a  matter  of  curious  conjecture  what  he 
would  have  done  if  he  had  possessed  a  powerful  civil  govern 
ment,  and  found  himself  overwhelmed  with  what  he  deemed 
idolatrous  Catholics.  He  never  had  the  temptation  and 
power,  and  it  is  of  little  value  to  attempt  to  guess  as  to  what 
he  would  have  done ;  this  is  rendered  of  less  interest  because 
he  was  quite  certain  to  do  the  erratic  and  unexpected  thing.4 

He  seems  sometimes  to  enjoy  a  vision  of  a  good  strong 
government.  Thus  he  holds  out  to  his  "  Impartial  Reader," 
whom  he  takes  into  his  own  sacred  companionship,  heir  to 
the  same  great  privileges  as  himself,  as  follows  :  "  Yet  shalt 
thou  see  Him,  reign  with  Him,  eternally  admire  Him,  and 
enjoy  Him,  when  He  shortly  comes  in  flaming  fire  to  burn 
up  millions  of  ignorant  and  disobedient."5 

1  Bishop's  Crim.  Law,  ii.  §  74. 

2  Ib.,  i.  §  499,  and  note. 

8  The  exception  of  such  "  cases  as  did  disturb  the  public  peace," 
Winthrop,  i.  *i62,  was  unimportant,  as  idolatry,  perjury,  blasphemy, 
and  Sabbath-breaking  are  all  against  the  public  peace. 

4  Staples's  Annals  of  Providence,  45. 

5  Pub.  Narr.  Club,  i.  318. 


138  THOMAS   DUDLEY  [CH.  xm 

His  contemplated  joy,  when  the  Lord  shall  burn  up  mil 
lions  of  ignorant  people,  is  an  indication  that  he  had  as  little 
sympathy  with  suffering  humanity  as  the  most  stubborn 
Puritan  in  the  colony.  It  would  not  have  been  safe  to  give 
to  him  extensive  power  over  his  fellow-creatures.  This  may 
be  the  reason  why  the  people  trusted  him  so  little  with 
authority  in  his  own  colony  of  Rhode  Island,  for  he  was 
governor  for  only  a  very  brief  period,  and  even  this  was  due 
no  doubt  to  his  successful  labors,  through  his  friend  Harry 
Vane,  in  securing  the  charter  of  that  colony. 

His  "violent  and  tumultuous  carriage  against  the  charter 
of  Massachusetts,"  which  was  for  half  a  century  their  consti 
tution,  the  very  bulwark  and  safeguard  of  their  liberties,  was 
startling. 

I  have  here  called  attention  to  Roger  Williams  in  Massa 
chusetts,  because  Dudley  was  somewhat  active  in  his  banish 
ment  to  England,  for  which  Williams  himself  adroitly  substi 
tuted  Rhode  Island ;  and  the  important  question  to  be 
considered  hereafter  in  this  connection  is  whether  Dudley 
manifested  that  kindness,  forbearance,  and  Christian  courtesy 
towards  Williams  which  his  own  profession  of  religion  and 
his  official  position  demanded  of  him,  or  whether  Williams, 
by  his  conduct,  forfeited  his  right  to  sojourn  in  Massachu 
setts,  and  rendered  himself  not  only  an  unworthy  but  dan 
gerous  inhabitant,  to  such  an  extent  that  Dudley  and  his 
associates  were  fully  justified  in  sending  him  out  of  their 
jurisdiction.  We  shall  at  the  proper  time  and  place  address 
a  few  words  to  this  issue.1 

1  The  contrasts,  changes,  and  reversals  in  circumstances  and  history 
would  have  a  comical  side  to  them,  if  it  were  not  for  their  intense  seri 
ousness  in  the  career  of  the  actors  themselves ;  for  example :  Rhode 
Island,  on  September  9,  1897,  permitted  the  mayor  and  police  of  Provi 
dence  to  banish  to  Massachusetts,  or  elsewhere,  Emma  Goldman,  an 
anarchistic  declaimer,  who  sought  to  relieve  her  burdened  mind  of  doc 
trines  believed  by  the  authorities  to  be  destructive  of  existing  law  and 
order.  The  teachings  of  Roger  Williams  were  believed  by  the  ancient 
authorities  in  Massachusetts  to  be  subversive  of  law  and  order.  We 
approve  heartily  of  the  action  of  the  mayor. 


1631]  CRUEL  PUNISHMENTS  139 

The  following  orders  of  the  General  Court  are  interesting  : 
The  Court,  in  June,  1631,  established  the  rule  that  no  person 
shall  travel  out  of  the  patent  without  leave  from  the  gov 
ernor,  deputy  governor,  or  some  assistant,  so  that  they  were 
equally  prepared  to  retain  and  adhere  to  persons,  or  reject 
them,  according  as  they  approved  of  them  or  otherwise,  which 
was  a  privilege  of  no  little  importance  at  the  planting  of  a 
colony.  The  sifting  of  the  population  at  that  period,  the 
exclusion  of  tares,  and  retaining  of  the  pure  wheat  were  alike 
important  so  long  as  the  manner  of  doing  it  was  legitimate 
and  just. 

On  June  14,  1631,  the  Court  ordered  "  that  Philip  Ratcliffe 
shall  be  whipped,  have  his  ears  cut  off,  be  fined  forty  pounds, 
and  banished  out  of  the  limits  of  this  jurisdiction,  for  utter 
ing  malicious  and  scandalous  speeches  against  the  government 
and  the  church  of  Salem,  &c.,  as  appeareth  by  a  particular 
thereof  proved  upon  oath." * 

This  punishment  seems  to  us,  in  the  light  of  our  methods 
and  ideas,  both  very  cruel  and  vindictive.  We  at  once  see, 
however,  that  it  is  needful  to  consider  public  sentiment  at 
that  period,  and  the  criminal  and  social  conditions  which  of 
necessity  influenced  their  action.2 

It  is  claimed  that  the  common  law  of  England  never  recog- 

1  Mass.  Col.  Rec.,  i.  88. 

2  It  aids  us  in  a  charitable  opinion  of  the  punishments  inflicted  by 
these  people,  if  we  note  how  nearly  barbarous  punishments  have  de 
scended  to  our  own  period  in  history  ;  neither  ought  we  to  overlook  the 
cruelty  inflicted  in  modern  warfare,  which  is  only  a  means  of  dealing 
out  punishment  to  selfish,  unyielding,  and  unreasonable  nations.     The 
pillory  was  abolished  by  7  William  IV.  and  i  Viet.,  c.  23;  the  stocks 
and  the  burning  in  the  hand  for  felony;  by  19  George  III.,  c.  74..   See 
Torture,  Encyc.  Britannica,  9th  ed.,  495.     There  are  two  quite  recent 
cases  in  which  the  United  States  court  has  decided  that  whipping  as  a 
punishment  for  crime  is  not  an  unusual  or  cruel  punishment  under  the 
Constitution  of  the  United  States.    (Desty's  Fed.  Const.  Dig.,  325.)     It 
was  only  one  or  two  years  after  the  Court  of  Massachusetts  had  inflicted 
their  cruel  edict  upon  the  ears  of  Ratcliffe  that  William  Prynne  lost 
both  of  his  ears  by  a  decree  of  a  British  court,  on  account  of  publishing 
his  book,  Histrio-Mastix,  against  plays. 


140  THOMAS   DUDLEY  [CH.  xm 

nized  torture  as  legal.  The  peine  forte  et  dure  was  not, 
however,  far  removed,  which  was  inflicted  on  Giles  Corey  in 
Salem,  Mass.,  in  1692.  And  there  was  a  case  in  England 
in  1 726.* 

Old  Testament  punishments  are  set  forth  in  the  Encyc. 
Bib.  Lit.,  viii.  Freeman  says  in  his  history  of  the  Norman 
Conquest  of  England,  vi.  106 :  "  In  fact,  in  an  age  which  had 
few  jails  and  no  penal  colonies,  it  may  well  have  seemed  that 
the  best  way  to  deal  with  a  sinner  who  was  not  to  be  put 
to  death  was  to  make  him  personally  incapable  of  sinning 
again." 

It  is  important,  in  this  comparison  of  public  sentiment  at 
two  periods,  to  note  as  illustrative  of  the  feeling  at  that  time 
that  even  Bacon,  who  was  only  fifteen  years  older  than 
Thomas  Dudley,  and  died  only  four  years  before  the  great 
emigration  to  America,  "  compares  experiment  in  nature  to 
torture  in  civil  matters  as  the  best  means  of  eliciting  truth." 

We  have  given  more  attention  to  this  matter,  because  there 
are  several  instances  of  punishment  in  the  Massachusetts 
record  which  cannot  fail  to  shock  every  one  in  this  era,  and 
to  seem  cruel  and  unjustifiable.  But  we  have  no  right  to 
take  people  out  of  their  age  and  environment  and  hold  them 
accountable  to  the  ideals  and  sentiments  of  subsequent  times. 
They  may  always  be  pointed  to  for  comparison  and  instruc 
tion,  but  with  the  attendant  thought  that  they  came  earlier, 
and  saw  "through  a  glass  darkly,"  and  that  we  should  be 
charitable  to  them  and  consider  their  day  and  generation,  as 
we  hope  for  consideration  on  our  own  doings  at  the  hands  of 
later  and  yet  more  enlightened  ages. 

Dudley  gives  an  account  in  his  letter  to  the  Countess  of 
Lincoln  of  Sir  Christopher  Gardiner,  which  has  considerable 
importance,  since  Gardiner  soon  appeared  in  England  as  an 
enemy  to  the  colony.  Dudley  writes  as  follows,  viz. :  "  Like 
wise  we  were  lately  informed  that  one  Mr.  Gardiner,  who 
arrived  here  a  month  before  us,  and  who  had  passed  here  for 
a  knight,  by  the  name  of  Sir  Christopher  Gardiner,  all  this 
1  Encyc.  Britannica,  xxiii.  466. 


1631]  SIR   CHRISTOPHER   GARDINER  141 

while  was  no  knight,  but  instead  thereof  had  two  wives  now 
living  in  a  house  at  London,1  one  of  which  came  out  Septem 
ber  last  from  Paris  in  France  (where  her  husband  had  left 
her  years  before)  to  London,  where  she  had  heard  her  hus 
band  had  married  a  second  wife,  and  whom,  by  inquiring,  she 
found  out.  And  they  both  condoling  each  other's  estate, 
wrote  both  their  letters  to  the  governor,  (by  Mr.  Peirce,  who 
had  conference  with  both  the  women  in  the  presence  of  Mr. 
Allerton,  of  Plymouth,)  his  first  wife  desiring  his  return  and 
conversion,  his  second  his  destruction  for  his  foul  abuse,  and 
for  robbing  her  of  her  estate,  of  a  part  whereof  she  sent  an 
inventory  hither,  comprising  therein  many  rich  jewels,  much 
plate,  and  costly  linen.  This  man  had  in  his  family  (and  yet 
hath)  a  gentlewoman,  whom  he  called  his  kinswoman,  and 
whom  one  of  his  wives  in  her  letter  names  Mary  Grove, 
affirming  her  to  be  a  known  harlot,  whose  sending  back  into 
Old  England  she  also  desired,  together  with  her  husband. 
Shortly  after  this  intelligence  we  went  to  the  house  of  said 
Gardiner  (which  was  seven  miles  from  us),  to  apprehend 
him  and  his  woman,  with  a  purpose  to  send  them  both  to 
London,  to  his  wives  there.  But  the  man,  who  having  heard 
some  rumor  from  some  who  came  in  the  ship,  that  letters 
were  come  to  the  governor  requiring  justice  against  him, 
was  readily  prepared  for  flight,  so  soon  as  he  should  see 
any  crossing  the  river  or  likely  to  apprehend  him,  which 
he  accordingly  performed.  For  he  dwelling  alone,  easily  dis 
cerned  such  who  were  sent  to  take  him,  half  a  mile  before 
they  approached  his  house;  and,  with  his  piece  on  his  neck, 
went  his  way,  as  most  men  think,  northwards,  hoping  to  find 
some  English  there  like  to  himself.  But  likely  enough  it  is, 
which  way  soever  he  went,  he  will  lose  himself  in  the  woods, 
and  be  stopped  with  some  rivers  in  his  passing,  notwithstand 
ing  his  compass  in  his  pocket,  and  so  with  hunger  and  cold 

1  A  writer  in  the  March  number  of  Harper's  Monthly,  1883,  has  dis 
covered  a  non  sequitur  here,  and  evidently  does  not  think  that  a  knight 
hood  is  an  equivalent  to  two  wives  in  London ;  he  is  correct  beyond  a 
doubt. 


142  THOMAS   DUDLEY  [CH.  xm 

will  perish  before  we  find  the  place  he  seeks.  His  woman 
was  brought  unto  us,  and  confessed  her  name,  and  that  her 
mother  dwells  eight  miles  from  Boirdly,  in  Salopshire,  and 
that  Gardiner's  father  dwells  in  or  near  Gloucester,  and  was 
(as  she  said)  brother  to  Stephen  Gardiner,  Bishop  of  Win 
chester,  and  did  disinherit  his  son  for  his  twenty-six  years' 
absence  in  his  travels  in  France,  Italy,  Germany,  and  Tur 
key  ;  that  he  had  (as  he  told  her)  married  a  wife  in  his  trav 
els,  from  whom  he  was  divorced,  and  the  woman  long  since 
dead ;  that  both  herself  and  Gardiner  were  Catholics  till  of 
late,  but  were  now  Protestants ;  that  she  takes  him  to  be  a 
knight,  but  never  heard  when  he  was  knighted.  The  woman 
was  impenitent  and  close,  confessing  no  more  than  was 
wrested  from  her  by  her  own  contradictions.  So  we  have 
taken  order  to  send  her  to  the  two  wives  in  Old  England, 
to  search  her  further." 1 

Young  says,  "  There  seems  to  be  a  mystery  hanging  over 
Gardiner  as  well  as  Morton  of  Merry  Mount  which  it  is  diffi 
cult  to  clear  up.  They  appear  to  have  had  no  definite  object 
in  view  in  coming  to  New  England,  but  seem  actuated  by 
a  spirit  of  adventure  and  an  unaccountable  love  of  frolic. 
Morton  says  that  Gardiner  '  came  into  those  parts,  intending 
discovery.'  It  is  not  unlikely,  however,  that  they  were  both 
in  the  employment  of  Sir  Ferdinando  Gorges,  who  claimed  a 
great  part  of  the  Bay  of  Massachusetts,  and  had  been  sent 
over  as  his  agents  or  spies.  We  know  that  Gorges  cor 
responded  with  them  both,  and  by  his  intercepted  letters 
it  appears  that  he  had  some  secret  design  to  recover  his 
pretended  right,  and  that  he  reposed  much  trust  in  Gar 
diner.  On  his  return  to  England,  Gardiner  was  very  active 
in  cooperating  with  Gorges  and  Morton  in  their  endeavors 
to  injure  the  colonists,  and  deprive  them  of  their  patent. 
These  attempts,  however,  were  defeated  by  the  friends  of 
the  colony  in  England." 

This  man  interests  us  chiefly  from  the  fact  that  he  was 
conspicuous  in  an  attempt  to  destroy  the  charter  and  over- 
1  Young's  Chron.,  334,  335. 


1631-32]  SIR  CHRISTOPHER  GARDINER  143 

throw  the  colony  in  1632,  although  he  declared  himself 
very  grateful  for  the  "great  courtesy  "  which  he  had  received 
in  Massachusetts  in  his  late  visit.  There  seems  to  be  no 
reasonable  doubt  that  the  Puritans  were  fully  justified  in 
sending  him  away,  either  as  a  spy,  or  as  a  man  immoral  and 
unworthy.  Either  reason  was  a  sufficient  cause  for  retiring 
him.  There  has  been  some  attempt  among  certain  historians 
and  essayists  to  trifle  with  Dudley's  sincere  words  in  giving 
a  description  of  these  people,  and  an  undue  sympathy  for 
the  malefactors  themselves  may  be  discovered  between  the 
lines  of  these  writers.  This  spirit  is  abroad  in  the  world 
everywhere.  The  worst  felons  always  find  some  one  to 
send  flowers  and  messages  of  condolence  to  their  cells.  It 
is  creditable  to  our  humanity,  doubtless,  that  no  souls  are 
ever  lost  in  historic  annals  so  utterly  as  not  to  find  in  after 
ages  persons  to  admire  them.  The  unvarnished  account  in 
Dudley's  letter  of  Gardiner  and  of  Mary  Grove,  derived 
from  investigations  both  in  Europe  and  America  under  the 
direction  of  the  government  of  Massachusetts,  continues  to 
be  the  most  authentic  and  trustworthy  information  extant 
concerning  these  miserable  people. 


CHAPTER   XIV 

THIS  mysterious  man,  Gardiner,  proved  himself  able  to  do 
the  colony  considerable  injury,  as  we  have  noticed,  upon  his 
return  to  England.  The  records  of  the  Privy  Council  show 
that  on  the  igth  of  December,  1632,  several  petitions  were 
"  offered  by  some  planters  of  New  England,  and  a  written 
declaration  by  Sir  Christopher  Gardiner,  Knt,  when  upon 
long  debate  of  the  whole  carriage  of  the  plantations  of  that 
country  "  the  matter  "  was  referred  to  a  committee  of  twelve 
Lords,"  to  examine  how  the  patents  of  the  said  plantations 
have  been  granted,  and  how  carried."  Winthrop  relates  that 
"  We  had  intelligence  from  our  friends  in  England,  that  Sir 
Ferdinando  Gorges  and  Capt.  Mason  (upon  the  instigation 
of  Sir  Christopher  Gardiner,  and  Morton,  and  Radcliff)  had 
preferred  a  petition  to  the  lords  of  the  Privy  Council  against 
us,  charging  us  with  many  false  accusations ;  but  through 
the  Lord's  good  providence,  and  the  care  of  our  friends  in 
England  .  .  .  their  malicious  practice  took  not  effect."  The 
delicate  situation,  and  the  peril  attaching  to  the  colony  from 
the  violent  words  of  such  outspoken  separatists  as  Roger 
Williams,  is  evident  in  the  following  words  of  Winthrop : 
"The  principal  matter  they  had  against  us,  the  letters  of 
some  indiscreet  persons  among  us  who  had  written  against 
the  church  government  in  England,"  etc.1 

The  order  of  the  Privy  Council,  adopted  January  19,  1633, 
contained,  however,  the  following,  among  other  favorable 
allusions  to  the  government  of  Massachusetts,  viz.:  that 
their  Lordships  "have  thought  fit,  in  the  mean  time,  to 
declare  that  the  appearances  were  so  fair,  and  the  hopes  so 
great,  that  the  country  would  prove  both  beneficial  to  this 
1  Winthrop,  i.  100. 


1632-33]       INTRIGUES   AGAINST   THE   COLONY  145 

kingdom  and  profitable  to  the  particular  adventurers,  as  that 
the  adventurers  had  good  cause  to  go  on  cheerfully  with 
their  undertakings,  and  rest  assured,  that  if  things  were  car 
ried  as  was  pretended  when  the  patents  were  granted,  and 
accordingly  as  by  the  patents  is  appointed,  his  Majesty 
would  not  only  maintain  the  liberties  and  privileges  hereto 
fore  granted,  but  supply  anything  further  that  might  tend 
to  the  good  government  of  the  place  and  prosperity  and  com 
fort  of  his  people  there."  l 

This  investigation,  no  doubt,  had  a  powerful  tendency  to 
strengthen  and  establish  more  firmly  the  government  in 
America.  "The  whole  carriage  of  the  plantation  "  had  been 
under  the  fierce  examination  of  the  British  government, 
instigated  and  stimulated  by  the  bitterest  enemies  of  the 
colony  at  home  and  abroad,  who  each  had  a  several  grievance 
to  present  to,  and  to  be  heard  by  the  Council.  "  The  whole 
carriage  "  must  of  necessity  have  included  the  much  mooted 
question  of  the  transfer  of  the  charter  to  America,  if  any  one 
then  had  a  doubt  about  the  propriety  of  that  action,  which 
is  not  probable.  It  was  left  mostly  for  debating  societies  of 
a  later  period  to  exercise  their  wits  upon  this  question,  when 
time,  the  great  corrective  in  human  affairs,  had  healed  all 
the  defects,  and  the  government,  with  a  new  and  independ 
ent  life,  had  gone  far  on  the  way  of  its  magnificent  destiny. 
Every  favorable  decision  of  an  important  court  strengthens 
and  confirms  a  patent  to-day,  and  the  same  no  doubt  was 
true  then  of  patents. 

The  colonists  were  so  solicitous  about  the  charges  against 
them  before  the  Privy  Council,  that  they  "  sent  an  answer 
to  the  petition  of  Sir  Christopher  Gardiner,  and  withal  a  cer 
tificate  from  the  old  planters2  concerning  the  carriage  of 
affairs,"  etc.3  Winthrop,  on  the  next  page  of  his  Journal, 

1  Orders  in  Council,  January  19,  1632-33,  and  Memorial  Hist,  of 
Boston,  i.  337. 

2  Savage  thinks  we  may  conjecture  the  names  to  be  Blaxton,  Jeffries, 
Maverick,  Thomson,  and  perhaps  Bursley,  Conant,  and  Oldham. 

3  Winthrop,  i.  106. 


146  THOMAS   DUDLEY  [CH.  xiv 

has  given  an  account  of  the  objections  of  Dudley  to  the 
answer  to  the  above  petition  of  Gardiner,  which  have  been 
freely  used  to  depreciate  and  discredit  Dudley,  and  we  think 
it  a  duty  carefully  to  examine,  and  if  possible  to  discover, 
the  real  reasons  for  Dudley's  course  in  this  matter.  The 
statement  is  as  follows,  viz.:  "There  is  mention  made  be 
fore  of  the  answer,  which  was  returned  to  Sir  Christopher 
Gardiner  his  accusations,  to  which  the  governor  and  all  the 
assistants  subscribed,  only  the  deputy  [Dudley]  refused. 
He  made  three  exceptions  :  i.  For  that  we  term  the  bishops 
reverend  bishops;  which  was  only  in  repeating  the  accuser's 
words.  2.  For  that  we  professed  to  believe  all  the  articles 
of  the  Christian  faith,  according  to  the  Scriptures  and  the 
common  received  tenets  of  the  churches  of  England.  This 
he  refused,  because  we  differed  from  them  in  matter  of 
discipline,  and  about  the  meaning  of  Christ's  descension  into 
hell ;  yet  the  faithful  in  England  (whom  we  account  the 
churches)  expound  it  as  we  do,  and  not  of  a  fatal  descent,  as 
some  of  the  bishops  do.  3.  For  that  we  gave  the  king  the 
title  of  sacred  majesty,  which  is  the  most  proper  title  of 
princes,  being  the  Lord's  anointed,  and  the  word  a  mere  civil 
word,  never  applied  in  Scripture  to  any  Divine  thing,  but 
sanctus  used  always.1  Yet  by  no  reasons  could  he  be  drawn 
to  yield  to  these  things,  although  they  were  allowed  by  divers 
of  the  ministers  and  the  chief  of  Plymouth." 

This  account  has  drawn  out  very  strikingly  the  pity  and 
commiseration  of  Mr.  J.  A.  Doyle2  for  Winthrop,  who  was 
compromised  by  such  " bigoted"  men  with  such  "impene 
trable  minds  "  as  Dudley  possessed.  He  seems  to  think 
that  Dudley  was  the  most  benighted  Puritan  on  record 
among  the  prominent  settlers  of  Massachusetts. 

It  does  not  appear  that  any  one  in  this  period  of  history  is 
qualified  to  judge  respecting  this  action  of  Dudley  in  declin 
ing  to  subscribe  to  the  answer,  because  no  one  has  seen  the 
document  or  knows  its  substance  even.  Dudley  was  as  well 

1  Mr.  Knox  called  the  queen  of  Scotland  by  the  same  title. 

2  J.  A.  Doyle's  English  in  America,  i.  159. 


1632-33]    DUDLEY  AND   GARDINER'S    PETITION  147 

qualified  as  any  man  in  the  government  to  measure  the  force 
of  apt  words,  and  to  determine  whether  it  was  consistent 
with  his  views  and  convictions  that  he  should  subscribe. 
He  determined  that  he  ought  not  to  do  it,  and  we  are  bound 
to  respect  his  judgment  and  his  opinions.  As  to  the  first 
objection  of  Dudley,  "  For  that  we  term  the  bishops  reverend 
bishops :  which  was  only  in  repeating  the  accuser's  words." 
Winthrop,  and  Doyle  following  in  his  train,  undertake  to 
inform  us  that  the  repeating  of  "  the  accuser's  words  "  was 
harmless,  because  they  were  his  sentiments,  and  not  of 
necessity  those  of  the  subscriber.  But  Dudley,  against  the 
magistrates  and  the  wisdom  of  Plymouth,  thought  other 
wise,  and  was  justified  in  acting  on  his  opinion,  which  from 
his  education  was  as  likely  to  be  correct  as  that  of  the 
majority. 

There  is  a  certain  dignity  and  nobility  of  position  in  the 
attitude  taken  by  Dudley  in  this  case.  He  was  the  last  man 
to  crouch  and  cringe  and  call  a  bishop  reverend,  that  is  to 
say,  "entitled  to  respect  mingled  with  fear  and  affection," 
when  he  knew  how  wicked,  cruel,  and  merciless  they  as  a 
class  had  been  towards  the  Puritans ;  that  they  "  had  intro 
duced  to  the  Parliament  a  bill  making  it  felony  to  maintain 
any  opinion  against  the  ecclesiastical  government ;  and  had 
succeeded  in  carrying  it  through  the  upper  house."  There 
is  a  long  list  of  their  doings  which  made  them  very  abhor 
rent  to  New  England  Puritans,  and  Thomas  Dudley  could  no 
more  apply  adjectives  of  reverence  or  endearment  to  them, 
than  a  Jew  could  offer  such  epithets  to  a  Samaritan  or  a  Phil 
istine.  If  the  words  to  which  he  was  asked  to  subscribe 
did  not  carry  that  meaning  in  fact,  he  felt  that  they  com 
promised  his  profession  and  testimony,  and  that  they  would 
be  construed  to  mean  that  in  effect,  and  therefore  he  would 
avoid  the  "very  appearance  of  evil."  We  know  that  he  was 
deeply  anxious  to  have  Gardiner  and  his  associates  answered, 
and  that  if  he  could  have  seen  his  way  clear,  he  would  have 
instantly  joined  his  name  to  the  answer.  That  he  hesitated 
shows  that  we  do  not  know  the  purport  in  full  of  that  docu- 


148  THOMAS   DUDLEY  [CH.  xiv 

ment  nor  his  reasons  for  declining  to  sign  it ;  we  can  trust 
his  judgment  safely  in  that  sort  of  a  thing. 

The  next  thing  that  staggers  him  is,  according  to  Win- 
throp,  "that  we  profess  to  believe  all  the  articles  of  the 
Christian  faith,  according  to  the  Scriptures  and  the  common 
received  tenets  of  the  churches  of  England."  This,  Win- 
throp  says,  Dudley  refused  on  the  ground  that  "  we  differ 
from  them  in  matter  of  discipline."  He  was  correct;  they 
differed  as  far  as  Congregationalists  and  Episcopalians  are 
separated  in  church  discipline  to-day.  Had  they  not  at 
Charlestown,  on  that  3Oth  day  of  July,  1630,  under  the 
"  Great  Tree,"  or  in  the  "  Great  House,"  put  their  names  to 
the  church  covenant  which  separated  them  from  the  mother 
church  ?  Was  not  this  the  fundamental  beginning  of  that 
church  institution  which,  alienated  from  the  Church  of  Eng 
land,  has  extended  everywhere  ?  Was  not  this  organization 
of  the  First  Church  the  model  for  all  the  others  across  the 
continent  ? 

And  to  quote  more,  "about  the  meaning  of  Christ's  de 
scent  into  hell."  Perhaps  the  best  method  to  apply  to  the 
consideration  of  this  question  is  to  refer  to  the  examination 
of  the  Puritan,  the  Rev.  Thomas  Settle,  minister  of  Bpxford 
in  Suffolk,  before  Archbishop  Whitgift  and  his  colleagues  in 
commission.  "  The  charge  was  that  Settle  denied  that  the 
soul  of  the  Saviour  went  to  the  regions  of  the  damned."  He 
answered,  "  I  confess  it  to  be  my  opinion,  that  Christ  did  not 
descend  locally  into  hell,  and  in  this  opinion  I  am  supported 
by  Calvin,  Beza,  and  other  learned  men."  1  It  was  said  as 
recently  as  in  1859,  that  tne  doctrine  of  the  "Protestant 
Episcopal  Church,  as  given  in  the  Liturgy  and  Homilies, 
can  only  be  reconciled  with  that  of  the  creed  and  Articles 
by  a  liberal  construction  of  the  creed.  And  this  has  been 
done  by  the  American  church  herself  in  the  rubric  prefixed 
to  the  creed,  in  which  she  substitutes  the  words,  '  He  went 
into  the  place  of  departed  spirits,'  as  of  equivalent  import. 

1  Hopkins's  Puritan,  34,  and  note. 


1632-33]  DUDLEY   VINDICATED  149 

The  terms  in  which  this  substitute  is  couched  are  quite 
general  and  indefinite."  l 

And  now  comes  the  political  issue  in  which  Dudley,  whom 
Winthrop  on  another  occasion  had  declared  to  be  wise,  just, 
and  brave,  evidently  is  in  advance  of  them  all.  "  For  that 
we  gave  the  king  the  title  of  sacred  majesty,  which  is  the 
most  proper  title  of  princes,  being  the  Lord's  anointed." 
The  Puritans  gave  their  judgment  respecting  the  " divinity" 
which  "doth  hedge  a  king"  when,  in  1649,  they  beheaded 
Charles  I.  America,  receiving  its  impulse  from  the  Puri 
tans,  repudiates  all  fictions  and  superstitions  respecting 
heavenly  anointed  kings,  and  declares  that  government  is 
of  the  people,  by  the  people,  and  for  the  people.  "The 
Americans  equally  detest  the  pageantry  of  a  king  and  the 
supercilious  hypocrisy  of  a  bishop."2  "It  [Calvinism]  es 
tablished  a  religion  without  a  prelate,  a  government  without 
a  king." 3  "  There  was  a  state  without  king  or  nobles ; 
there  was  a  church  without  a  bishop ;  there  was  a  people 
governed  by  grave  magistrates  which  it  had  selected,  and  by 
equal  laws  which  it  had  framed."  4  It  might  be  made  to 
appear  to  minds  not  "  impenetrable  "  that  Dudley  was  the 
most  liberal  and  progressive  man  in  that  great  and  famous 
group ;  that  he  was  nearest  to  the  stature  of  the  true  and 
typical  American.  He  would  not  bow  the  knee  to  Baal. 
Possibly  he  was  the  noblest  Roman  of  them  all.  He  has 
been  called  bigoted  in  this  matter.  The  first  meaning  of 
bigot  is  hypocrite,  but  he  was  not  that ;  it  is  the  other  peo 
ple  who  are  subscribing  to  what  they  do  not  believe  for  the 
noble  purpose  of  being  polite.  Society  is  replete  with  per 
sons  of  a  craven  spirit  who  will  deny  their  principles,  to  be 
agreeable.  "  It  is  an  amiable  weakness."  Thomas  Dudley 
/"was  made  of  sterner  stuff."  As  to  the  other  definition  of 

1  McClintock  and  Strong's  Cyc.  of  Bib.  Theolog.  and  Eccl.  Lit.,  iv. 
172. 

2  Junius,  Letter  XXXV.,  Dec.  19,  1739. 

3  George  Bancroft. 

4  Rufus  Choate,  Dec.  22,  1843. 


150  THOMAS   DUDLEY  [CH.  xiv 

bigotry,  he  may  be  said  to  be  equally  clear.  He  has  been 
charged  with  intolerance  ;  that  we  must  consider  later.  We 
then  hope  to  show  that  he  contended  with,  and  refused  to 
tolerate,  only  religious  teachings  which  were  subversive  of 
their  social,  political,  and  religious  undertaking,  teachings 
which  an  organized  government  and  established  institutions, 
with  seventy-five  millions  of  inhabitants,  may  easily  and 
safely  leave  to  be  absorbed,  or  run  their  harmless  course. 
The  early  tender  plant  of  government  could  not  endure,  but 
must  at  first  be  protected  from  the  fury  of  fanatics.  How 
important  it  was  to  mankind  that  the  Puritan  commonwealth 
should  have  been  what  it  was,  let  history  relate,  and  on  its 
testimony  we  will  rest  secure. 

The  authors  who  have  so  easily  detected  the  narrowness 
of  Dudley  in  comparison  with  Winthrop  have,  if  we  may  be 
permitted  to  anticipate,  failed  to  note  the  liberality  and  en 
lightenment  manifested  by  Dudley  in  the  instance  of  the 
setting  up  of  the  king's  colors,  early  in  the  administration 
of  Harry  Vane.  We  will  let  Winthrop  tell  it :  "  We  replied, 
that  for  our  part  we  were  fully  persuaded,  that  the  cross  in 
the  ensign  was  idolatrous,  and  therefore  might  not  set  it  in 
our  ensign ;  but  because  the  fort  was  the  king's,  and  main 
tained  in  his  name,  we  thought  that  his  own  colors  might 
be  suspended  there.  So  the  governor  [Vane]  accepted  the 
colors  of  Captain  Palmer,  and  promised  they  should  be  set 
up  at  Castle  Island.  We  conferred  over  night  with  Mr. 
Cotton,  etc.,  about  the  point.  The  governor  [Vane],  and 
Mr.  Dudley,  and  Mr.  Cotton  were  of  opinion  that  they 
might  be  set  up  at  the  fort  upon  this  distinction,  that  it  was 
maintained  in  the  king's  name.  Others  [including  himself], 
not  being  so  persuaded,  answered,  that  the  governor  and 
Mr.  Dudley,  being  two  of  the  council,  and  being  persuaded 
of  the  lawfulness,  etc.,  might  use  their  power  to  set  them 
up.  Some  others,  being  not  so  persuaded,  could  not  join  in 
the  act,  yet  would  not  oppose,  as  being  doubtful,"  etc.1 
"  The  colors  were  given  us  by  Captain  Palmer,  and  the  gov- 
1  Winthrop,  i.  188. 


1636]     DUDLEY  MORE   LIBERAL  THAN  WINTHROP     151 

ernor  [Mr.  Vane]  in  requital  sent  him  three  beaver  skins. 
But  the  deputy  [Winthrop]  allowed  not  of  this  distinction."  l 

We  find  the  following  just  and  very  satisfactory  comments 
upon  this  -dispute  in  vol.  iv.  of  Sparks's  "  American  Biogra 
phy,"  page  1 1 6  :  "So  far  as  the  character  of  the  conflicting 
parties  is  to  be  inferred  from  the  transaction  just  related,  it 
is  impossible  not  to  recognize  a  more  liberal  and  enlightened 
spirit  in  Vane  and  Dudley  than  was  manifested  by  the  other 
members  of  the  Court."  And  here  the  author  is  caught  by 
the  cherished  ideal  of  Winthrop,  viz. :  that  he,  like  the  king, 
can  do  no  wrong,  and  so  he  invents  a  theory  for  his  seem 
ing  error,  which,  if  it  expresses  the  facts,  derogates  much 
more  from  the  character  of  Winthrop  than  the  first  simple 
unexplained  action.  It  is,  in  effect,  a  charge  that  he  was 
capable  of  mean  jealousy  and  treachery  against  the  govern 
ment,  and  bad  faith  towards  his  associates.  To  vindicate  his 
intelligence,  it  robs  his  heart  and  moral  reputation.  Away 
with  such  excuse.  We  proceed  to  quote :  "  The  jealousy 
which  had  for  some  time  actuated  the  leading  men  towards 
Vane,  [observe  that  this  does  not  include  Dudley  among  the 
'  leading  men,']  and  their  hostility  to  his  principles,  gave  a 
prevailing  direction  to  their  course  on  this  occasion,  which 
cannot  otherwise  be  explained.  Nothing  but  the  disturbing 
influence  of  sentiments  of  this  sort  could  have  induced  such 
a  man  as  Winthrop  to  oppose  the  governor,  on  the  strength 
of  a  scruple  so  far-fetched  and  excessive,  as  that  which  led 
him  to  join  with  others  in  refusing  to  recognize  the  king's 
authority  in  his  own  dominions,  on  his  own  fort,  by  an  inno 
cent  ceremony,  which  was  requested  for  the  avowed  purpose 
of  preserving  peace  and  harmony,  and  preventing  a  misun 
derstanding  between  the  colony  and  the  people  of  England, 
under  circumstances  that  would  certainly  have  been  highly 
injurious,  and  might  have  become  utterly  ruinous  to  the 
former." 

It  is  more  probable  that  the  popular  current  was  setting 
strongly  against  the  existence  of  the  cross  in  the  ensign  and 
1  Winthrop,  ii.  344. 


152  THOMAS   DUDLEY  [CH.  xiv 

against  Governor  Vane,  and  that  Winthrop  clearly  saw  that 
it  was  the  beginning  of  the  downfall  of  Vane  in  the  colony, 
and  he  was  too  discerning  a  politician  to  drift  on  to  rocks 
and  reefs  exposed  to  his  view  at  every  change  of  the  popular 
tide.  Winthrop,  like  Abraham  Lincoln,  waited  for  the  opin 
ions  of  the  people.  The  Emancipation  Proclamation  came 
forth  when  the  people  were  convinced  of  its  expediency 
and  necessity.  So  Winthrop  always,  with  one  hand  on  the 
public  pulse,  was  forecasting  the  future.  He  was  Vane's 
successor  in  office.  He  could  risk  misunderstandings  with 
England  three  thousand  miles  away,  which  could  be  easily 
condoned  by  many  plausible  explanations,  in  investigations 
long  subsequent  to  the  unfortunate  event  in  question.  And 
he  was  not  the  man  to  attach  himself  to  a  falling  star,  and 
be  dragged  down  and  out  of  public  attention. 

Endicott  had,  two  years  before,  cut  the  cross  out  of  the 
ensign,  as  an  emblem  of  Popery,  and  the  General  Court  had 
for  this  rashness,  uncharitableness,  and  indiscretion,  and  for 
exceeding  the  limits  of  his  calling  on  the  part  of  Endicott, 
censured  him  to  be  sadly  admonished  of  his  offense,  and, 
what  was  doubtless  far  more  unbearable,  disenabled  him 
from  holding  office  in  the  commonwealth  for  and  during 
one  entire  year.  The  question  has  been  raised,  to  what 
degree  the  sensitive  conscience  of  Williams  was  affected  by 
the  cross  on  the  king's  coin  in  his  own  pocket  ? l 

These  events  disclose  the  royal  and  sterling  independence 
of  Dudley,  standing  side  by  side  with  Harry  Vane,  the  great 
martyr  of  liberty. 

-1  Mass.  Col.  Rec.,  i.  146 ;  Palfrey's  Hist.  New  Eng.,  427.  This  was 
suggested  by  the  theory  which  once  prevailed,  that  Williams  was  the 
instigator  of  this  action  of  Endicott,  which  is  not  proven. 


CHAPTER   XV 

THE  acts  of  the  Courts  from  time  to  time  furnish  a  lively 
account  of  the  doings  and  opinions  of  these  people,  and  give 
a  striking  illustration  of  the  dominant  public  opinion  and 
social  life  of  the  period. 

"It  is  ordered,  that  Thomas  Dexter  shall  be  set  in  the 
bilboes,  disfranchised  and  fined  403.  for  speaking  reproachful 
and  seditious  words  against  the  government  here  established, 
and  finding  fault  to  divers  with  the  acts  of  the  Court,  saying, 
this  captious  government  will  bring  all  to  naught,  adding 
that  the  best  of  them  was  but  an  attorney,"  etc. l 

Free  speech  and  the  sacred  privilege  of  fault-finding  were 
restrained  until  the  infant  colony  had  strength  and  independ 
ence  enough  to  be  beyond  their  influence.  Such  a  rule  now, 
well  enforced,  would  nearly  or  quite  deprive  orators  and  the 
public  press  of  their  lucrative  occupations. 

The  relative  importance  of  the  six  towns  in  1632  appears 
in  the  rate  of  taxation.  Boston  is  assessed  ,£5,  Charlestown 
£4,  Roxbury  £6,  Watertown  £6,  New  Town  £6,  Medford 
£3,  for  the  maintenance  of  Captain  Underhill  and  Captain 
Patrick  for  half  a  year ;  they  were  then  the  military  com 
manders  of  the  colony.  "  The  price  of  corn,  formerly  re 
strained  to  six  shillings  the  bushel,  is  now  set  at  liberty 
to  be  sold  as  men  can  agree."  The  price  for  breach  of  pro 
mise  to  marry  was  more  moderate  then  than  now.  "  It  is 
ordered,  that  Joyce  Bradwick  shall  give  unto  Alexander 
Beck  the  sum  of  twelve  shillings  for  promising  him  marriage 
without  her  friends'  consent,  and  now  refusing  to  perform 
the  same."  .  .  .  "John  Winthrop  was  chosen  governor,  and 
Thomas  Dudley,  deputy  governor,  at  a  General  Court  held  at 
1  Mass.  Col.  Rec.,  i.  103. 


154  THOMAS   DUDLEY  [CH.  xv 

Boston,  May  29,  1633,  manifested  by  a  general  erection  of 
hands."1 

The  prohibitory  law  was  introduced  early.  "  It  is  ordered, 
that  no  person  shall  sell  either  wine  or  strong  water  without 
leave  of  the  governor,  or  deputy  governor.  This  order  to 
take  place  a  fortnight  hence,  and  after  the  constable  of  the 
same  plantation  hath  published  the  same,  and  that  no  man 
shall  sell,  or  (being  in  a  course  of  trading)  give  any  strong 
water  to  any  Indian."  2 

They  had  something  which  seems  like  involuntary  bank 
ruptcy,  for,  "  It  is  ordered  that  the  goods  of  Thomas  Walford 
shall  be  sequestered  and  remain  in  the  hands  of  Anchient 
Gennison,  to  satisfy  the  debts  he  owes  in  the  Bay  to  several 
persons."3 

The  proclamation  for  a  general  thanksgiving,  issued  at  a 
Court  holden  at  Boston,  October  i,  1633,  is  pathetic:  "In 
regard  of  the  many  and  extraordinary  mercies  which  the 
Lord  hath  been  pleased  to  vouchsafe  of  late  to  this  planta 
tion,  viz.,  a  plentiful  harvest,  ships  safely  arrived  with  persons 
of  special  use  and  quality,  etc.,  it  is  ordered,  that  Wednesday, 
the  1 6th  day  of  this  present  month,  shall  be  kept  as  a  day  of 
public  thanksgiving  through  the  several  plantations.  And 
whereas  it  is  found  by  common  experience  that  the  keeping 
of  lectures  at  the  ordinary  hours  now  observed  in  the  fore 
noon  to  be  divers  ways  prejudicial  to  the  common  good,  both 
in  the  loss  of  a  whole  day  and  bringing  other  charges  and 
troubles  to  the  place  where  the  lecture  is  kept,  it  is  therefore 
ordered,  that  hereafter  no  lecture  shall  begin  before  one 
o'clock  in  the  afternoon."4 

"  It  is  ordered,  that  there  shall  be  ,£400  collected  out  of 
the  several  plantations  to  defray  public  charges,  viz.  — Bos 
ton  £48,  Roxbury  £48,  New  Town  £48,  Watertown  £48, 
Charlestown  £48,  Dorchester  £80,  Saugus  £36,  Salem 
£28,  Winetsemet  ,£8,  Medford  £12,  Aggawam  £8,  Sum 
total  -  £4 1 2.  "5 

1  Mass.  Col.  Rec.,  i.  103,  104.        2  Ib.,  i.  106.        3  Ib.,  i.  107.       j 
4  Ib.,  i.  109.  6  Ib.,  i.  no. 


1632-33]    FORTIFICATION   OF   FORT   HILL,   BOSTON    155 

This  is  of  importance,  since  it  shows  the  relative  standing 
of  the  eleven  towns  in  October,  1633.  We  have  already 
given  considerable  attention  to  the  contest  between  Win- 
throp  and  Dudley  over  the  question  whether  Cambridge  or 
Boston  should  be  the  capital  of  the  colony.  It  is  quite  evi 
dent  that  the  struggle  continued  longer,  and  was  deeper  and 
more  influential  in  the  lives  of  these  men  and  their  relations 
to  each  other  than  a  mere  superficial  research  might  lead 
one  to  suspect. 

We  have  also  dwelt  upon  the  matter  of  Dudley's  palisade 
around  Cambridge,  and  upon  the  fact  that  the  House  of 
Representatives 1  is  claimed  to  have  indirectly  resulted  from 
the  taxation  of  Watertown  for  its  share  of  the  expense  of 
the  work.  It  seems  that  Winthrop  began  the  fortification  on 
Fort  Hill,  in  Boston,  at  the  same  time  nearly,  that  is  to  say, 
two  months  after  this  tax  was  assessed  in  February,  1632. 
Winthrop  says,2  "  The  fortification  upon  the  Corn  Hill  [after 
wards  called  Fort  Hill,  begun  May  24,  1632],  that  Charles- 
town  men  came  and  wrought  upon  it  the  2$th  of  May. 
Roxbury  the  next,  and  Dorchester  the  next."  It  is  to  be 
observed  that  New  Town  does  not  appear  here,  and  at  first 
had  nothing  to  do  with  it.  August  3,  1632,  Dudley  is  said 
by  Winthrop  to  have  asked  him  by  what  authority  he  had 
moved  certain  ordnance,  and  erected  a  fort  at  Boston,  and 
that  Winthrop  replied  to  this  "  that  the  ordnance  lying  upon 
the  beach  in  danger  of  spoiling,  and  having  often  complained 
of  it  in  the  Court,  and  nothing  done,  with  the  help  of  divers 
of  the  assistants,  they  were  mounted  upon  their  carriages, 
removed  where  they  might  be  of  some  use  :  and  for  the  fort, 
it  had  been  agreed,  above  a  year  before,  that  it  should  be 
erected  there :  and  all  this  was  done  without  any  penny 
charge  to  the  public."  Dr.  Shurtleff,  in  his  "Topographi 
cal  and  Historical  Description  of  Boston,"  page  164,  says : 

1  The  oldest  representative  body  in  America  excepting  that  of  Vir 
ginia,  which  first  met  June  19,  1619.    Plymouth  had  none  until  1639. 
(Hutchinson,  ii.  46.) 

2  Winthrop,  i.  *;;. 


156  THOMAS   DUDLEY  [CH.  xv 

"  These  extracts  clearly  show  that  Governor  Winthrop  origi 
nated  the  project  of  erecting  the  fortifications  upon  the  hill, 
and  actually  accomplished  the  undertaking,  in  which  he  was 
opposed  by  Dudley,  the  deputy  governor."  And  it  helps  to 
disclose  a  contest  between  them  in  these  matters  that  Win 
throp  charges  back  upon  Dudley,  on  the  3d  day  of  August, 
as  follows :  "  But  the  deputy  had  taken  more  upon  him,  in 
that,  without  order  of  Court,  he  had  empaled,  at  New  Town, 
above  one  thousand  acres,  and  had  assigned  lands  to  some 
there."  Winthrop's  argument  seems  to  be,  I  am  no  worse 
than  you  are,  which  has  the  merit  at  least  of  equality.  Win 
throp  and  the  Boston  influence  were  no  doubt  at  work  to  fix 
the  permanent  capital  in  that  town,  and  to  that  end,  and  for 
their  own  proper  security,  they  were  very  solicitous  about  the 
fortifications  of  the  harbor.  Hence  it  was  ordered  "  by  the 
General  Court,  May  29,  1633,"  that  the  "fort  at  Boston  shall 
be  finished  with  what  convenient  speed  may  be,  at  the  public 
charge."1  And  the  Court,  in  September  of  that  year,  en 
forced  the  above  order  as  follows  :  "  It  is  ordered,  (according 
to  a  former  order  at  the  General  Court)  that  every  hand  (ex 
cept  magistrates  and  ministers)  shall  afford  their  help  to  the 
finishing  of  the  fort  at  Boston,  till  it  be  ended."  2  New  Town 
did  not  respond  to  this  order.  It  is  charged  in  Winthrop's 
Journal  that  Dudley  was  the  man  who  resisted  it.  He  was 
no  doubt  the  most  influential  citizen  of  New  Town  at  that 
time,  and  was  opposed  to  spending  money  or  labor  on  the 
fortifications  of  Boston,  not  because  he  was  selfish  or  morose, 
but  because  the  work  did  not  commend  itself  to  his  better 
judgment  as  of  sufficient  importance.  He  still  believed  that 
New  Town  would  be  the  capital,  and  that  fosses  and  palisades 
were  the  best  defense  against  Indians,  bears,  and  wolves ; 
that  they  were  not  in  condition  yet  to  build  forts  to  resist 
the  artillery  of  Europe.  But  it  would  no  doubt  be  a  mistake 
to  assume  that  Dudley  was  alone  in  this  opinion.  There  is 
some  reason  to  believe  that  this  struggle  between  Boston 
and  New  Town  was  participated  in  by  Governor  Haynes  as 
1  Mass.  Col.  Rec.,  i.  105.  2  Ib.,  i.  108. 


1632-33]         FORT   ON    FORT   HILL,  BOSTON  157 

well,  and  Governor  Ludlow,  and  that  it  may  have  contributed 
something  to  the  antagonism  between  Cotton  and  Hooker, 
which  is  thought  to  have  been  the  reason  why  the  latter  left 
Massachusetts  and  settled  in  Connecticut.  Whether  there 
is  any  connection  or  not  between  the  two  events,  the  de 
parture  came  at  that  exact  time  when  Boston  triumphed  over 
Cambridge  and  the  capital  went  there  forever.  We  are  aware 
that  a  few  Courts  were  held  in  Cambridge  later,  but  only  in 
time  of  violent  public  disturbance.  The  battle  was  won  for 
Boston,  and  Winthrop,  Cotton,  and  Vane  were  victorious  over 
Dudley,  Haynes,  and  Hooker.  Was  this  rivalry  between 
these  towns,  and  the  personal  animosity  created  thereby, 
the  cause  ?  It  may  at  least  have  been  a  potent  influence ; 
perhaps  it  will  never  be  known  to  what  extent  they  played 
a  part  in  those  important  movements. 

But  to  return  to  the  record  a  little  further  :  "  It  is  ordered, 
that  when  all  the  plantations  in  the  Bay  hath  done  two 
days'  work  apiece  at  the  fort,  there  shall  order  go  forth  to 
Salem,  Aggawam,  and  Saugus,  to  send  in  their  money  for 
three  days'  work  towards  it  for  every  man,  except  magis 
trates  and  ministers."  This  action  was  at  the  Court  in  No 
vember  of  the  same  year,  and  requires  Winthrop's  explana 
tion  1  to  make  it  clear  how  high  the  feeling  ran  between  the 
towns  and  between  the  worthies.  It  seems  expedient  to 
mention  in  this  connection  that  this  Court,  and  one  other, 
viz.,  June  2,  1640,  are  the  only  two  recorded  Courts  of  either 
kind  that  Dudley  did  not  attend  until  the  very  end  of  his 
life.  As  we  have  already  mentioned,  this  indicates  his 
interest,  his  faithfulness,  and  his  important  share  in  all  the 
doings  of  that  noble  bench  of  magistrates  during  twenty- 
three  years,  which  bench  in  impelling  and  directing  power 
has  hardly  been  exceeded  in  importance  by  any  other  body 
of  men  of  equal  numbers  and  station  in  life  in  the  world's 
history.  Why  did  not  Dudley  attend  this  particular  Court  ? 
We  do  not  know ;  he  may  have  been  ill ;  but  we  suspect  that 
he  felt  that  he  was  in  the  minority  and  could  do  no  good, 
1  Winthrop,  i.  *n;. 


158  THOMAS    DUDLEY  [CH.  xv 

and  might  make  himself  and  others  unhappy ;  and  like  a 
prudent  man  that  he  was,  he  heeded  the  injunction  of  Shak- 
spere,  "  Beware  of  entrance  to  a  quarrel."  It  might  have 
been  better  if  he  had  considered  this  wise  suggestion  earlier. 
We  are  informed  by  Winthrop  "  that  those  of  New  Town 
being  warned,  the  deputy  [Mr.  Dudley]  would  not  suffer 
them  to  come."  The  only  account  of  this  matter  is  from 
Winthrop.  It  seems  a  little  strange  that  Dudley  could  thus 
resist  the  order  of  Court,  and  the  Court  take  no  notice  of  it. 
There  is  positively  no  account  of  it  in  the  records  of  the 
colony.  It  seems  also  doubtful  whether  Salem  and  Saugus, 
as  represented,  were  the  real  reason.  If  it  was  as  Winthrop 
says,  and  in  the  main  no  doubt  it  was,  Dudley's  objection 
lay  deeper  and  went  against  the  whole  scheme  of  fortifica 
tion  at  Fort  Hill.  Winthrop  says  further,  "The  Court 
being  two  days  after,  ordered,  that  New  Town  should  do 
their  work  as  others  had  done."  Which  we  understand  to 
be  included  in  the  general  order  of  November  5,  above 
quoted.  We  hear  nothing  more  about  the  fortification  of 
Boston ;  the  Boston  party  nas  carried  the  day  and  Dudley 
is  reconciled,  but  not  convinced,  after  all,  of  the  expediency 
of  the  action.  For  so  soon  as  he  is  governor,  in  1634,  the 
capital  is  instantly  removed  to  Cambridge,  and  remains  there 
during  his  administration  and  that  of  Governor  Haynes,  his 
friend  and  successor  in  office,  also  a  citizen  of  Cambridge. 
Then  the  Boston  party  comes  into  the  ascendency  in  the 
person  of  Harry  Vane.  The  Cambridge  party,  in  1635,  tne 
year  before,  had  probably  arrived  at  a  profound  convince- 
ment  that  the  tide  of  public  sentiment  had  permanently  set 
in  favor  of  Boston,  for  they  began  that  year  to  leave  Cam 
bridge.  They  considered  Ipswich  and  Connecticut,  both 
then  in  Massachusetts,  as  places  of  residence.  Governor 
Haynes  and  Hooker  went  to  Connecticut.  Dudley  was 
unwilling  to  go  so  far  from  the  seat  of  government,  and  there 
fore  went  with  his  family  and  son-in-law,  Governor  Simon 
Bradstreet,  and  others,  to  Ipswich.  There  he  remained 
three  or  four  years,  until  he  was  again  candidate  for  gov- 


1633-34]  WINTHROP   AND   DUDLEY  159 

ernor,  when  he  removed  to  Roxbury,  to  be  nearer  to  the  seat 
of  government,  and  also  to  be  under  the  preaching  or  min 
istry  of  his  friend,  John  Eliot,  the  Indian  missionary.  Here 
he  remained  immovable  all  the  rest  of  his  life.  Winthrop 
and  Dudley,  after  the  supremacy  of  Boston  was  assured,  had 
no  more  troubles  which  have  descended  to  us.  They  were 
no  doubt  welded  together  in  their  contests  with  Roger  Wil 
liams  and  with  Antinomians,  and  with  the  discontented  and 
ever-growing  and  surging  forces  of  democracy  and  fanati 
cism,  which  must  be  bridled  and  curbed  and  kept  in  place, 
until  they  could  be  educated  and  trusted  to  go  alone  without 
the  leading  strings  of  babyhood.  Their  families  intermar 
ried,  and  most  of  the  important  matters  mentioned,  which 
awakened  their  solicitude  and  tried  their  courage,  wisdom, 
and  patience,  occurred  while  Dudley  resided  at  Ipswich,  from 
1635  to  1639. 

It  would  be  difficult  to  overestimate  the  great  stability 
and  force  of  character  which  these  two  men  contributed  to 
this  commonwealth,  and  thence  directly  to  the  common 
wealth  of  England.  Allow  all  honor  to  John  Cotton  and 
the*  ministers  in  general,  as  an  advisory  force  and  guide  to 
the  meaning  of  the  Scriptures,  and  even  of  the  law,  and 
yet  the  executive  wisdom  was  in  the  magistrates,  to  discern 
the  right  way  and  to  walk,  and  direct  others  to  walk,  therein 
with  fidelity,  and  a  courage  which  could  withstand  the 
anointed  ministers  if  reason  dictated  that  course,  and  tell 
them  to  keep  their  allotted  places  and  reign  in  their  own 
bailiwick.  There  remained,  as  early  as  1636,  only  three  of 
that  Court  of  Assistants  which  met  on  board  the  Arbella, 
March  23,  1629,  the  last  Court  in  England  which  elected 
Dudley  deputy  governor.  These  were  Winthrop,  Dudley,  and 
his  son-in-law,  Bradstreet,  who  was  the  last  governor  under 
the  first  charter  in  1679,  and  was  young  and  of  less  weight 
until  the  ancient  worthies  had  disappeared.  Winthrop  went 
to  his  final  rest  in  1649,  an^  Dudley  survived  him  four  years, 
and  was  governor  again  in  1650.  But  how  these  two  men 
tower  in  importance  above  all  the  others  in  the  colony! 


160  THOMAS   DUDLEY  [CH.  xv 

They  were  so  constantly  in  office,  and  so  united  and  com 
bined  in  .the  service  of  the  commonwealth,  that  their  labors 
and  achievements  are  absolutely  inseparable.  Then  let  no 
American  citizen  willingly  and  voluntarily  "  abate  the  tithe 
of  a  hair  from  the  just  character  and  just  fame  "  of  either 
illustrious  magistrate.  "  These  were  honored  in  their  gen 
eration  and  were  the  glory  of  their  times."  l 

The  election  on  May  14,  1634,  was  an  exceedingly  im 
portant  one.  Dudley  up  to  this  time  had  lived  and  labored 
always  under  the  shadow  of  Winthrop.  He  had  been  con 
stantly  second,  and  Winthrop  first.  He  had  been  only  the 
deputy  heretofore,  but  now  he  was  elevated  by  the  suffrages 
of  the  people  above  Winthrop,  in  the  governorship.  This 
indorsement  by  the  people  was  of  special  importance  to  him, 
because  it  was  a  vindication  of  himself  in  his  controversy 
with  Winthrop.  He  was  jealous  of  Winthrop,  it  is  asserted, 
and  wanted  his  high  place  for  himself.  This  view  is  unjust 
to  Dudley.  He  was  very  much  disturbed  at  the  unwar 
ranted  assumption  of  power  and  authority  on  the  part  of 
Winthrop,  as  appears  in  his  charges  against  him.2  It  was 
not  for  himself  that  he  contended ;  it  was  for  the  cause  of 
causes,  it  was  for  the  state,  that  he  was  anxious. 

"  Why,  man,  he  doth  bestride  the  narrow  world 
Like  a  Colossus.  .  .  . 
Upon  what  meat  doth  this  our  Caesar  feed, 
That  he  is  grown  so  great  ?  "  3 

Thus  thought  the  people  of  Winthrop  at  this  election,  and 
Dudley  was  at  their  head  and  was  their  choice  for  governor, 
and  their  verdict  then  was  a  conclusive  judgment  in  favor  of 
Dudley  and  against  Winthrop,  running  back  over  the  con 
troversies  of  1632  and  1633  down  to  this  period.  It  is  to  be 
said  that  the  political  lines  were  not  the  same  as  in  former 
years,  yet  it  is  true  that  the  supposed  usurpations  of  Win 
throp  were  at  the  foundation  of  all  controversies,  early  and 
late.  The  Rev.  Mr.  Cotton  was  an  earnest  supporter  of 

1  Son  of  Syrach.     See  Rom.  xii.  7,  8.          2  Winthrop,  i.  *8s-*86. 
8  Julius  Caesar,  act  i,  scene  2. 


1,634]  DUDLEY   GOVERNOR  161 

Winthrop.  The  Rev.  Mr.  Hooker,  who  did  not  cherish 
Cotton  with  great  warmth,  was  no  doubt  on  the  side  of  Dud 
ley.  Both  Hooker  and  Haynes  lived  at  Cambridge,  as  we 
have  noted,  with  Dudley,  and  were  no  doubt  his  friends  and 
supporters.  And  this  same  spirit  between  the  same  persons 
continued  until  Hooker  retired  to  Connecticut  in  1636,  and 
Dudley  to  Ipswich  in  1635.  The  Hutchinson  and  Williams 
struggles  in  1636  united  the  factions  against  their  common 
enemies ;  and  we  hear  nothing  more  about  unpleasantness 
and  jealousies  between  Winthrop  and  Dudley.  It  is  well  to 
observe  that  Dudley  believed  with  all  his  heart  in  rotation 
in  office.  They  had  escaped  from  a  land  of  hereditary  and 
one-man  power,  and  had  espoused  the  government  by  the 
whole  church-going  people,  who  were  believed  to  contain  the 
virtue  and  intelligence  of  the  community,  and  he  was  anxious 
that  they  might  not  drift  back  into  their  old  ways  of  office 
for  life,  which  seemed  to  be  the  idea  of  Cotton  and  also  of 
Winthrop.  It  was  this,  it  may  be  safely  believed,  which 
kept  Dudley  out  of  the  office  of  governor,  with  the  exception 
that  he  returned  about  every  five  years.  He  was  governor 
in  1634,  1640,  1645,  1650,  and  these  periods  of  absence  from 
office  so  regular,  coupled  with  his  firm  adherence  to  the  doc 
trine  of  rotation  in  office,  accounts  fully  for  his  continued 
action  during  his  whole  life  in  Massachusetts. 

"  This  election  was  held  in  the  old  First  Meeting  House, 
and  the  courteous,  but  defeated  Winthrop,  entertained  at  his 
own  house  Dudley  and  the  assistants,  as  he  usually  had 
done  after  his  own  election  in  former  years,  during  the  three 
days  of  the  session."  Nothing  has  in  it  greater  power  of 
reconciliation  than  an  hospitable  reception  and  a  good  dinner. 
"  If  thine  enemy  hunger  feed  him."  Winthrop's  residence 
was  on  Washington  Street,1  a  little  north  of  the  Old  South 
Church,  and  here  the  worthy  magistrates  feasted  May  14, 
15,  and  16,  1634,  and  never  more  told  the  world  at  large 
their  quarrels,  if  they  had  them. 

1  In  1631  he  brought  his  house  from  Cambridge,  and  placed  it  by  the 
Old  South.  (Old  Landmarks  of  Boston,  225.) 


162  THOMAS   DUDLEY  [CH.  xy 

The  Rev.  Mr.  Cotton,  "at  the  General  Court,  preached 
and  delivered  this  doctrine,  that  a  magistrate  ought  not  to  be 
turned  into  the  condition  of  a  private  man  without  just  cause, 
and  to  be  publicly  convict,  no  more  than  the  magistrates  may 
not  turn  a  private  man  out  of  his  freehold,  etc.,  without  like 
public  trial,  etc.  This  falling  in  question  in  the  Court,  and 
the  opinion  of  the  rest  of  the  ministers  being  asked,  it  was 
referred  to  further  consideration."  1  It  does  not  appear  that 
Winthrop  was  displeased  with  Cotton's  single-man  govern 
ment  doctrine.  Cotton  was  himself  only  made  a  freeman  at 
this  Court,  and  was  so  recently  from  the  autocratic  ideas  of 
England,  and  so  in  fellowship  with  Winthrop,  his  administra 
tion  and  fortunes,  that  he  soon  discovered  himself  to  be  quite 
on  the  unpopular  side  in  the  politics  of  the  period,  without 
even  the  support  of  the  ministers. 

The  freemen  were  evidently  very  much  agitated  over  the 
doings  of  Governor  Winthrop  and  the  Court  of  Assistants, 
and  proposed  to  examine  at  once  into  their  own  charter  rights, 
and  having  found  them,  to  maintain  them  at  any  cost.  When 
the  notice  was  issued  for  the  great  election  at  the  May 
meeting  of  the  General  Court,  they  were  on  the  alert.  Two 
of  them  from  each  town  met  and  "  desired  a  sight  of  the  pat 
ent,"  in  April  previous  to  the  session  of  the  General  Court, 
"  and  conceiving  thereby  that  all  their  laws  should  be  made 
at  the  General  Court,  repaired  to  the  governor  [Winthrop] 
to  advise  with  him  about  it,  and  about  the  abrogating  of  some 
orders  formerly  made,  as  for  the  killing  of  swine  in  corn," 
etc.  Swine  from  time  to  time  became  the  proximate  cause 
of  some  very  important  revolutions  in  the  interests  of  liberty 
in  the  colony.  The  governor  said  to  this  committee  of  towns 
that  "  for  the  present  they  were  not  furnished  with  a  suffi 
cient  number  of  men  qualified  for  such  a  business,  neither 
could  the  commonwealth  bear  the  loss  of  time  of  so  many  as 
must  intend  it."  He  very  adroitly  suggested  that  they  might 
do  divers  and  sundry  things,  only  they  must  not  make  new 
laws.2  Winthrop's  treatment  of  this  committee,  in  this  very 
i  Winthrop,  i.  *I32.  2  Ib.,  i.  *iz8. 


1633-34]    DUDLEY  CALLS  WINTHROP  TO  ACCOUNT     163 

important  inquiry  and  critical  juncture  of  political  affairs, 
reveals  the  imperious  and  lordly  assumption  he  was  capable 
of,  until  the  discipline  of  dealing  with  a  free  people  taught 
him  to  be  more  considerate.  Here  we  see  him  as  he  was, 
and  can  well  understand  the  character  that  Dudley  was  united 
with  for  years.  And  we  can  well  believe  that  his  patience 
was  tried  to  a  hair's  breadth,  when  Winthrop,  a  man  of  less 
years  and  experience  in  life,  took  matters  into  his  own  hands, 
and  took  no  trouble  to  say,  "By  your  leave,  I  do  this  and 
that."  Winthrop  had  to  be  called  to  account,  and  taught  a 
vigorous  lesson,  beginning  with  the  golden  rule,  and  then 
that  the  people  were  thenceforth  and  forever  to  be  sovereign 
in  America.  It  is  remarkable  that  Winthrop,  who  charges 
Dudley  with  jealousy  of  him,  nowhere  seems  to  suggest  that 
Dudley  had  stirred  the  freemen  to  the  point  of  resistance  to 
his  continuance  in  office.  •  We  do  not  believe  that  Dudley 
ever  sought  to  displace  Winthrop.  We  know  he  was  desir 
ous  that  he  should  consult  the  government  more  in  the  ad 
ministration.  We  also  know  that  he  approved  of  rotation  in 
office.  It  is  certainly  creditable  to  Dudley  that  Winthrop 
found  no  occasion  to  say  of  him  that  his  own  temporary  over 
throw  was  due  in  any  manner  to  the  intrigue  of  himself. 
Nor  does  he  even  insinuate  that  Dudley  had  cultivated  the 
dear  people  to  obtain  votes  which  would  elevate  himself  to 
the  governorship  in  his  place.  It  is  evident  that  Dudley,  by 
his  very  mental  structure,  was  incapable  of  that  service  to 
himself. 


CHAPTER   XVI 

THE  thoroughness  with  which  this  Court  did  its  work  is 
simply  marvelous,  and  its  effect  no  man  can  estimate.  Sav 
age  says,  "  No  country  on  earth  can  afford  the  perfect  his 
tory  of  any  event  more  interesting  to  its  own  inhabitants 
than  that  which  is  here  related."1  The  first  thing  done  in 
the  General  Court,  as  the  record  stands,  was  a  change  of  the 
oath  of  freemen,  and  also  a  retroactive  provision  changing 
the  obligation  of  the  former  oath  upon  the  freemen  of  earlier 
date.  The  latter  part  of  this  oath  was  a  healthful  and  sug 
gestive  preparation  for  the  resistance  they  were  about  to 
undertake  in  politics  against  the  present  firmly  seated  gov 
ernment,  including  possibly  the  ministers  and  magistrates. 
It  is  impossible  to  state  how  the  party  division  ran  at  this 
time.  We  know  that  the  majority  were  bent  on  reducing 
Governor  Winthrop.  The  following  is  a  part  of  the  oath, 
which  has  the  most  important  bearing  on  the  situation, 
viz.  :  "  Moreover,  I  do  solemnly  bind  myself  in  the  sight  of 
God,  that  when  I  shall  be  called  to  give  my  voice  touching 
any  such  matter  of  this  state  wherein  freemen  are  to  deal, 
I  will  give  my  vote  and  suffrage,  as  I  shall  judge  in  mine 
own  conscience  may  best  conduce  and  tend  to  the  public 
weal  of  the  body,  without  respect  of  persons,  or  favor  of  any 
man.  So  help  me  God,  in  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ."  2 

This  kind  of  oath  would  be  a  useful  reminder  to  the 
thoughtless  in  our  present  elections.  It  is  well  adapted  also 
to  the  integrity  and  independence  of  the  candidate  who  re 
ceived  a  majority  of  the  votes  at  the  election.  For  Winthrop 
said  of  Dudley  in  1641,  "Who  being  a  very  wise  and  just 

1  Winthrop,  i.  *I29,  note  I. 

2  Mass.  Col.  Rec.,  117. 


1634]  BALLOT   FIRST   USED  165 

man  and  one  that  would  not  be  trodden  under  foot  of  any  |     * 
man."     When  Winthrop  said  that,  he  knew  Dudley  by  a  liv-l  * 
ing  experience,  close  and  intimate,  in  temptation,  under  fiery 
trials  of  every  sort ;  and  it  is  exceedingly  strong  testimony 
from  the  lips  of  a  rival.     Dudley  would  hardly  succeed  as 
a  politician  in  some  known  localities  to-day  with  such  char 
acteristics. 

There  was,  at  this  election,  a  determined  purpose  to  bring 
out  the  independent  vote,  and  to  preserve  its  independency 
until  the  issue  was  settled  whether  there  should  be  a  change 
in  the  government.  The  ballot,  or  voting  "by  papers,"  was 
used,  the  secret  ballot,  that  permitted  each  freeman  to  make 
his  choice  without  exposure  to  the  scrutiny  of  politicians  or 
ministers.  It  has  been  thought  that  this  use  of  the  ballot 
was  a  return  after  fifteen  hundred  years  to  the  Roman  sys 
tem  in  the  time  of  Trajan.  But  it  is  now  shown  to  have 
come  to  America  by  the  way  of  the  Netherlands.1 

It  is  also  said  that  the  ballot  had  a  prior  service  in  Salem, 
Mass.,  in  church  elections.  But  the  important  question  is 
whether,  in  all  the  history  of  representative  government,  the 
election  of  Dudley  was  not  the  first  wherein  the  free  people 
cast  their  vote  by  ballot  direct  for  the  chief  magistrate.  This 
would  have  far  greater  historic  importance  than  the  use  of 
the  ballot  by  churches,  by  corporations,  or  by  deliberative 
and  legislative  bodies.  It  would  be  the  introduction  of  a 
system  which  is  not  yet  in  use  in  England  except  as  to  re 
presentatives,  and  not  even  in  that  particular  instance  until 
1872.  It  does  not  yet  exist  in  all  of  the  American  States. 
The  Congress  of  the  United  States  has  provided  that  all 
votes  for  representatives  in  Congress  shall  be  by  written  or 
printed  ballots.2  The  citizen  who  votes  directly  for  governor 
or  representatives  acts  for  himself,  not  by  delegative  author 
ity,  and  has  a  right  to  keep  to  himself,  and  guard  his  private 
independent  choice.  It  is  no  doubt  vastly  for  the  public 

1  Douglas  Campbell's  Puritan  in  Holland,  England,  and  America,  ii. 
430-440. 

2  Revised  Statutes  of  the  U.  S.,  p.  5,  §  27. 


1 66  THOMAS   DUDLEY  [CH.  xvi 

good  that  he  be  so  protected  as  to  exercise  this  privilege 
freely,  but  the  representative  in  legislature  or  in  Congress  is 
in  another  relation ;  he  has  constituents.  He  votes  for  them, 
and  they  have  a  reasonable  and  just  right  to  know  by  a  viva 
voce  vote  exactly  how  he  voted  on  all  questions. 

It  does  not  yet  appear  that,  with  these  proper  limitations, 
the  vote  for  Dudley  was  not  original  in  form  and  unique  in 
all  history.  Hooker  was  doubtless  in  favor  of  Dudley  in  this 
election.  He  belonged  to  the  Cambridge,  and  not  to  the 
Boston,  faction.  He  did  not  in  general  side  with  Cotton, 
who  was  an  earnest  Winthrop  man.  We  have  observed  his 
association  with  Dudley  from  his  first  arrival  in  the  colony. 
He  had  lived  three  years  in  Holland,  and  we  may  reasonably 
suppose  that  he  had  there  learned  something  of  the  use  of  the 
ballot.  At  any  rate,  he  placed  it  permanently  in  the  famous 
constitution  of  Connecticut,  five  years  subsequent  to  this 
election.  Did  he  have  a  hand  in  guiding  the  political  for 
tunes  of  Dudley  on  that  eventful  I4th  day  of  May,  1634  ? 
Or  did  he  learn  then  the  value  of  the  ballot  in  Massachusetts, 
and  later  enrich  that  constitution,  as  he  did  in  many  other 
particulars,  through  his  experience  and  observation  in  the 
older  commonwealth  ? 1 

It  is  pleasant  and  very  interesting  to  read  Hubbard's 
excuse  for  and  thoughtful  explanation  of  Winthrop' s  failure 
of  reelection  :  "  The  freemen,  that  they  might  not  always 
burden  one  person  with  the  yoke  of  the  government,  nor 
surfer  their  love  to  overflow  in  one  family,  turned  their  re 
spects  into  another  channel."  2  He  also  wrote  kind  and  ap 
preciative  words  of  Dudley's  promotion  to  the  gubernatorial 
office.  Savage,  in  his  note,3  asks  what  induced  this  concert 
of  action  among  the  towns,  by  which  their  delegates  pro 
ceeded  to  interrogate  Winthrop,  and  to  examine  the  charter, 
to  learn  their  rights  and  powers  ?  He  himself  answers  this 
question  by  the  suggestion  that  the  assistants  had  become 

1  Douglas  Campbell's  Puritan  in  Holland,  England,  and  America,  ii. 

439- 

2  Hist,  and  Antiq.  of  Boston,  169.  3  Winthrop,  i.  *I29. 


1634]      POLITICAL   MISFORTUNE   OF   WINTHROP          167 

weary  of  power,  and  devised  this  method  of  shifting  a  portion, 
at  least,  of  the  responsibility  upon  the  deputies,  which  is  quite 
a  departure  from  the  theory  expressed  by  Hubbard.  It  ap 
pears  to  us  that  the  theory  of  Savage,  so  far  as  Winthrop  is 
concerned,  is  improbable,  if  not  impossible.  He  had  clearly 
shown,  at  his  interview  with  the  committee  a  month  before, 
that  he  did  not  consider  them  competent  to  take  the  respon 
sibility  either  to  make  laws  or  to  execute  them.  He  was 
evidently  desirous  of  retaining  all  the  position  and  power  he 
had  attained  to  so  far,  and  of  keeping  the  freemen  in  their 
proper  place,  which  he  considered  subordinate.  This  had 
been  his  constant  method,  manifested  in  his  words  and  in  his 
actions. 

The  more  reasonable  view  of  his  political  reverse  is  that 
certain  thoughtful  men  in  the  colony,  including  possibly 
Hooker  and  Nathaniel  Ward,  were  quietly  agitating  certain 
changes  and  reforms  in  the  arbitrary  government  by  the 
Court  of  Assistants ;  that,  influenced  by  them,  these  dele 
gates  put  a  few  questions  kindly  to  Governor  Winthrop,  and 
learned  that  he  had  no  sympathy  with  them,  and  that  being 
already  convinced  by  the  learned  among  them  that  the  assist 
ants  were  determined  to  govern,  so  long  as  they  were  per 
mitted  to  do  so,  the  delegates  began,  under  the  inspiration  of 
some  one  to  us  unknown,  who  had  something  of  the  spirit 
of  1776,  seriously  to  ponder  the  great  thought  that  "eternal 
vigilance  is  the  price  of  liberty." 

The  Court  of  Assistants  had  ordered,  ten  months  before 
this  date,  "  that  it  shall  be  lawful  for  any  man  to  kill  any 
swine  that  comes  into  his  corn."  1  Six  months  before,  the 
same  Court  ordered  :  "  Further,  it  is  agreed  that  no  man 
shall  give  his  swine  any  corn  but  such  as,  being  viewed  by 
two  or  three  neighbors,  shall  be  judged  unfit  for  man's 
meat.  .  .  .  Also,  that  every  plantation  shall  agree  how 
many  swine  every  person  may  keep,  winter  and  summer, 
about  the  plantation." 

When  the  honorable  deputies  appeared  before  Governor 
1  Mass.  Col.  Rec.,  i.  106. 


168  THOMAS   DUDLEY  [CH.  xvi 

Winthrop  for  information  and  sympathy,  he  says  that  they 
wished  to  advise  with  him  about  "  the  abrogating  of  some 
orders  formerly  made,  as  for  killing  of  swine  in  corn,"  etc. 
This  Court  organized  May  14,  1634,  and  then  settled  some 
constitutional  questions,  and  began  to  do  the  ordinary  busi 
ness  of  the  Court  by  passing  the  following  act :  "  All  former 
orders  concerning  swine  are  repealed ;  and  it  is  agreed  that 
every  town  shall  have  liberty  to  make  such  orders  about 
swine  as  they  shall  judge  best  for  themselves."  The  dele 
gates  had  approached  Governor  Winthrop  and  presented 
their  grievances,  and  he  in  turn  alluded  to  some  matters 
which  he  considered  no  doubt  the  more  important,  but  he 
either  disregarded  or  overlooked  the  question  respecting 
swine,  and  gave  them  no  satisfaction.  We  do  not  seek  to 
magnify  this  or  any  other  matter  beyond  its  due  and  relative 
importance.  It  is,  however,  evident  that  these  citizens  from 
a  land  of  severe  laws  and  oppressive  government  were  be 
ginning  to  feel  the  impulses  of  liberty  in  a  new  social  life, 
and  the  democratic  spirit  awakened  in  them  was  constantly 
stimulating  them  to  a  close  inspection  of  the  laws  of  govern 
ment  under  which  they  were  living.  They  were  searching, 
as  we  are  to-day,  for  the  unattained,  the  ideal  theory  and 
practice  of  government,  the  royal  highway  and  method  of 
advance,  to  which  was  then,  as  now  and  always  will  be,  by 
agitation. 

Political  agitation  had  been  invoked  in  the  question  of 
the  conflict  between  Cambridge  and  Boston,  respecting  the 
choice  of  one  of  them  as  the  capital  town,  and  also  as  an 
incidental  matter  the  fortifications  of  Boston  harbor.  Sev 
eral  of  these  contests  had  set  the  people  in  battle  array  to 
contend  for  their  liberties,  and  thereupon  aroused  a  spirit 
which  never  slumbers  in  America,  but  has  appeared  in  every 
struggle  and  period  in  our  annals. 

Winthrop,  in  the  judgment  of  the  majority  of  the  free 
men,  as  we  think,  was  growing  into  the  conviction  that  he 
was  to  be  governor  at  least  during,  good  behavior,  and  that 
he  and  his  immediate  associates  would  for  a  long  time  be 


i634]  REPRESENTATIVE   GOVERNMENT  169 

tolerated  in  the  high  places  of  power  in  the  colony ;  that  the 
true  course  of  the  government  was  to  curb  the  "  vaulting 
ambition  "  of  the  people,  and  keep  them  in  the  subordinate 
ranks  of  obedient  subjects,  neither  law-makers  nor  judges 
of  the  laws  created  by  their  superiors. 

Dudley  was  raised  to  the  chief  magistracy  upon  the  popu 
lar  tide  which  created  a  representative  government  outside 
of  the  charter,  ultra  vires  ;  not  indeed  the  first,  but  the  sec 
ond  representative  body  in  America,  —  not  second,  however, 
in  importance  in  the  history  of  the  United  States.  Ought 
the  colony  properly  to  have  applied  to  England  for  a  change 
of  charter  enabling  them  to  make  this  extension  in  their 
government  ? x 

One  thing  is  evident :  that  the  government  of  the  people 
made  a  great  and  permanent  advance,  and  that  in  this  move 
ment  Dudley  was  at  the  front,  while  the  swine  question  was 
surely  quite  fundamental  in  the  agitation  among  the  peo 
ple  which  developed  this  great  political  advance.  Dudley 
had  himself  first  called  public  attention  to  the  complacent, 
self-assured  methods  of  Winthrop's  administration,  no  doubt 
because  he  was  by  his  prominent  position  best  prepared  for 
this  service  ;  but  at  this  election  the  freemen  themselves 
were  fully  awake  to  the  growing  importance  of  rotation  in 
office  in  a  free  government.  Dudley  therefore  was,  by  his 
election  upon  this  issue,  at  this  moment  vindicated  respect 
ing  his  arraignment  earlier  of  the  one-man  government  of 
Winthrop,  and  he  had  also  the  proud  distinction  of  being 
borne  into  office  in  this  progressive  movement  of  the  free 
men  towards  that  democratic  freedom  which  is  the  noblest 
characteristic  in  our  government  to-day. 

We  can  never  know  whether  the  twenty-four  freemen 
enrolled  at  that  General  Court,  May  14,  1634,  acted  as  and 
for  the  whole  body  of  freemen  in  the  election  of  Mr.  Dudley, 
the  others  being  fully  notified,  but  having  failed  to  appear, 
or  whether  there  were  others  present  not  named  in  the 
record.  We  know  that  the  twenty-four  names  were  the 
1  Grahame's  Hist.  U.  S.,  i.  229. 


170  THOMAS   DUDLEY  [CH.  xvi 

representative  body  when  the  Court  was  finally  organized. 
We  also  know  that  the  governor  was  not  to  be  elected  by 
the  representatives,  but  by  the  whole  Court,  governor,  deputy 
governor,  assistants  ;  and  the  election  would  proceed  now, 
except  that  it  would  be  in  town  meeting,  by  the  freemen  or 
such  portion  thereof  as  might  come  after  due  and  lawful 
notice  to  all.1  It  is  ordered,  "that  there  shall  be  four  Gen 
eral  Courts,  held  yearly,  to  be  summoned  by  the  governor, 
for  the  time  being,  and  not  to  be  dissolved  without  the  con 
sent  of  the  major  part  of  the  Court."  They  did  not  intend 
to  leave  any  prerogative  with  the  executive  to  prorogue  or 
dissolve  Parliament  at  its  pleasure.  The  people  were  sov 
ereign,  and  intended  to  continue  to  be.  They  now  began  to 
reserve  in  themselves  all  powers,  as  they  have  since  done, 
not  specifically  granted,  and  to  extend  even  the  contem 
plated  methods  of  the  charter  in  the  interests  of  liberty  and 
political  progress.  For  without  special  authority  or  direc 
tion  under  the  charter,  though  not  in  violence  to  it,  "  It  was 
further  ordered,  that  it  shall  be  lawful  for  the  freemen  of 
every  plantation  to  choose  two  or  three  of  each  town  before 
every  General  Court,  to  confer  and  prepare  such  public  busi 
ness  as  by  them  shall  be  thought  fit  to  consider  of  at  the  next 
General  Court.2  And  that  such  persons  shall  be  hereafter 
so  deputed  by  the  freemen  of  the  several  plantations,  to  deal 
in  their  behalf,  in  the  public  affairs  of  the  commonwealth, 
shall  have  the  full  power  and  voices  of  all  the  said  freemen, 
derived  to  them  for  the  making  and  establishing  of  laws, 
granting  of  lands,  etc.,  and  to  deal  in  all  other  affairs  of  the 
commonwealth  wherein  the  freemen  have  to  do,  the  matter 
of  election  of  magistrates  and  other  officers  only  excepted, 
wherein  every  freeman  is  to  give  his  own  voice."3  This  is 
very  fundamental,  and  seems  to  contain  the  germ  of  the 
present  organized  government  of  Massachusetts,  and  of 
the  other  States  as  well,  and  indeed  of  the  United  States. 

1  Mass.  Col.  Rec.,  i.  118. 

2  This  looks  like  a  sort  of  caucus,  for  conference  at  least. 
8  Mass.  Col.  Rec.,  i.  118. 


1634]    DANGERS    OF   UNEDUCATED  .DEMOCRACY        171 

The  people,  having  thus  established  the  manner  of  election 
of  their  governor  and  legislative  officers,  proceed  in  the  full 
exercise  of  their  assumed  powers  of  government  to  secure 
to  themselves  and  to  their  posterity  "  the  free  liberties  of  a 
freeborn  people  of  England."  Although  they  do  not  at 
this  one  effort  secure  the  whole  of  the  most  celebrated 
thirty-ninth  of  Magna  Charta,  or  trial  by  jury  in  all  its  provi 
sions,  they  nevertheless  make  a  very  important  beginning  in 
that  direction.  "  It  was  further  ordered  that  the  constable 
of  every  plantation  shall,  upon  process  received  from  the 
secretary,  give  timely  notice  to  the  freemen  of  the  plantation 
where  he  dwells,  to  send  so  many  of  their  said  members  as 
the  process  shall  direct,  to  attend  upon  public  service ;  and 
it  is  agreed,  that  no  trial  shall  pass  upon  any,  for  life  or 
banishment,  but  by  a  jury  so  summoned,  or  by  the  General 
Court."  l  We  cannot  fail  to  note  that  this  is  a  continuation 
of  the  struggle  of  the  people  towards  liberty  by  an  instinct 
of  freedom.  The  intrinsic  motive  in  the  minds  of  these 
people,  and  of  all  other  people  who  seek  for  trial  by  jury,  is 
its  relations  to  the  rights  of  the  people.  Judges  in  the 
past,  at  least,  were  appointed  by  sovereigns,  and  were  often 
their  servants  against  the  interests  of  the  people ;  but  a 
jury  of  one's  peers  was  a  cherished  bulwark  of  liberty,  and 
protection  from  the  abuse  of  power  and  prerogative  in  high 
places. 

Forebodings  of  calamities  arising  from  ungovernable  demo 
cracy  and  a  population  which  was  not  trusted  with  power, 
but  which  was  being  constantly  increased  by  the  arrival  of 
every  ship  from  Europe,  were  influencing  Winthrop  and  the 
other  assistants,  and  made  them  hesitate  before  they  recog 
nized  the  sovereignty  of  the  masses,  and  transferred  the 
most  important  powers  to  untutored  citizens.  Nevertheless, 
that  transfer,  however  slowly  evolved,  was  the  meaning  in 
history  of  the  great  emigration  to  America,  and  this  three 
days'  session  of  the  General  Court  was  the  very  dawn  of  the 
new  era,  and  notice  was  here  served  by  the  people,  that 
1  Mass.  Col.  Rec.,  i.  118. 


i;2  THOMAS   DUDLEY  [CH.  xvi 

they  proposed  to  enter  at  once  upon  their  inheritance  from 
which  they  had  been  ousted  since  time  immemorial.  We 
ought  most  highly  to  appreciate  the  good  fortune  of  Dudley 
in  being  elevated  to  the  first  place  in  the  commonwealth 
and  in  the  gift  of  the  people  at  this  period.  We  have  not 
always  found  writers  of  history  regarding  him  as  a  student 
of  law  and  of  English  liberty,  the  associate  in  England  with 
the  greatest  and  most  advanced  spirits  of  the  age,  and  such 
historians  would  never  observe  how  gladly  he  welcomed  the 
progress  of  political  freedom,  and  gave  to  it  his  sympathy 
and  warm  approval.  Dudley,  Nathaniel  Ward,  and  Thomas 
Hooker  were  kindred  spirits  of  the  true  American  type,  and 
the  colony  derived  from  them  more,  perhaps,  than  history 
has  distinctly  chronicled.  Winthrop,  on  the  other  hand,  has 
received  his  share  of  honor  for  all  that  was  then  achieved, 
because  he  left  a  diary,  in  which  events  take  a  shade  and 
color  from  his  own  objective  point  of  view,  and  because  his 
illustrious  descendants  have  honorably  guarded  his  cherished 
memory. 


CHAPTER  XVII 

AN  important  matter  absorbed  the  attention  of  the  gov 
ernment.  The  Plymouth  Colony  claimed  under  their  grant 
a  monopoly  of  the  Indian  traffic  on  the  Kennebec  River,  and 
one  John  Hocking,  of  Piscataqua,  agent  for  Lords  Say  and 
Brooke,  undertook,  in  May,  1634,  to  intercept  the  canoes 
which  came  down  the  river  and  to  divert  the  trade  to  him 
self.,  A  dispute  at  once  arose,  which  resulted  in  the  death 
of  Hocking,  and  also  of  a  Plymouth  man  by  the  name  of 
Moses  Talbot.  Hocking  was  no  doubt  the  one  chiefly  at 
fault.1  Palfrey  says  that  "  the  business,  as  threatening  mis 
chief  to  all  the  colonies,  was  taken  up  by  the  General  Court 
of  Massachusetts."  2  The  Massachusetts  Court  record  is  as 
follows  :  "  Upon  a  complaint  made  to  John  Winthrop,  Esq., 
then  governor,  by  a  kinsman  of  John  Hocking,  lately  slain 
at  Kennebec,  by  one  of  the  Plymouth  Plantation,  desiring 
that  justice  might  be  done  upon  the  offender,  the  Court, 
taking  into  consideration  the  same,  hath  ordered  that  Mr. 
John  Alden  (being  there  present  when  the  said  Hocking 
was  slain)  shall  be  detained  here,  till  answer  be  received 
from  those  of  Plymouth,  whether  they  will  try  the  matter 
there  or  no,  or  that  sufficient  security  shall  be  taken  that 
he,  the  said  John  Alden,  shall  not  depart  out  of  the  limits  of 
this  patent,  without  leave  from  the  Court  or  governor."  It 
seems  that  John  Alden  gave  the  security.3  Goodwin  relates 
that  "Alden  was  found  at  large  on  bail,  and  on  Standish's 
presentation  of  the  case  Alden  and  his  sureties  were  fully 
discharged.  Yet  the  new  governor,  Dudley,  committed  the 

1  Hutchinson,  ii.  474,  note ;  Goodwin's  Pilgrim  Republic,  381. 

2  Palfrey,  i.  338. 

8  Mass.  Col.  Rec.,  i.  119. 


174  THOMAS    DUDLEY  [CH.  xvn 

fresh  indignity  of  putting  Standish  under  bonds  to  appear 
before  the  Massachusetts  Court  in  two  weeks  and  make  oath 
as  to  Plymouth's  rights,  as  well  as  to  the  special  facts  of  the 
Hocking  case.  At  the  time  set,  Standish  returned  to  Bos 
ton,  bearing  a  letter  sent  by  Prence  (who  was  governor  in 
1634),  but  written  by  Bradford.  This  note  was  probably  of 
the  thorough  and  severe  nature  which  the  case  demanded, 
for  Dudley  answered  it  unofficially,  and  made  an  effort  to 
dispose  of  the  matter  by  private  diplomacy ;  nor  did  he  dis 
close  Bradford's  letter,  even  to  his  council.  But  the  bluff 
Standish  discomfited  him  by  demanding  that  a  reply  be 
given  him  in  open  court.  Dudley  was  then  forced  to  pro 
duce  the  letter  in  court,  where  it  seems  to  have  given  much 
offense,  but  the  members  finally  evaded  the  matter  by  de 
claring  that,  as  it  was  only  an  answer  to  one  of  Dudley's,  it 
did  not  require  a  reply. 

"  Standish  and  Alden  then  went  home,  bearing  Dudley's 
private  note.  This  pleaded  for  harmony,  and  made  some 
talk  about  the  honor  of  suffering  wrong  patiently,  —  a  sub 
ject  upon  which  the  irascible  Dudley  can  have  known  little ; 
.  .  .  Plymouth  was  too  weak  to  redress  her  wrongs  by  force. 
When  her  righteous  indignation  had  somewhat  cooled,  the 
excellent  Winthrop,  to  allay  the  storm  aroused  by  his  bitter 
rival,  Dudley,  induced  Plymouth  to  request  all  the  planta 
tions  to  send  delegates,  including  their  clergy,  to  meet  at 
Boston,  and,  after  hearing  all  who  chose  to  appear,  decide 
the  Hocking  case,  with  full  power,  but  without  '  prejudice 
of  the  liberties  of  any  place.'  .  .  .  These,  however,  after 
reviewing  the  case  with  care,  formally  and  fully  exonerated 
the  Plymouth  men,  and  declared  that  Hocking  alone  had 
been  to  blame.  The  Bay  officials  also  undertook  to  satisfy 
the  English  lords  of  the  justice  of  this  decision,  —  an  effort 
in  which  they  succeeded."  l  Dudley  and  Winthrop  both 
wrote  to  England  "to  mediate  peace."2  "Lord  Say  and 
Brook  replied  to  Mr.  Dudley."3  Bradford  adds,  "Thus 

1  Goodwin's  Pilgrim  Republic,  383. 

2  Winthrop,  i.  137.  8  Ib.,  i.  145. 


1 634]  THE   HOCKING   CASE  175 

'was  their  love  and  concord  renewed/  — an  expression  which 
admits  that  it  had  been  suspended."  1 

We  have  introduced  this  long  account  of  a  not  very  re 
markable  matter  in  itself,  because  it  seemed  to  be  another 
instance  in  which  Dudley  has  been  misunderstood  and  mis 
represented.  It  is  important  at  the  start  to  remember  that 
the  government  of  the  colonies  was  at  this  time  in  special 
danger  of  being  reorganized  by  the  home  government.  And 
this,  if  it  were  accomplished,  meant  the  destruction  of  all 
that  the  Puritans  held  most  sacred  in  America.  Hence 
they  were  deeply  solicitous  to  avoid  such  a  catastrophe. 
Winthrop  has  given  us  in  pathetic  language  his  conviction 
of  the  danger.  He  says  :  "  And  besides  had  brought  us  all 
and  the  gospel  under  a  common  reproach  of  cutting  one 
another's  throats  for  beaver."  2  The  author  from  whom  we 
quote  evidently  thinks  that  the  intermeddling  of  Massachu 
setts  in  the  affairs  of  the  other  colonies  was  officious.  He 
assures  us  that  the  "  excellent  Winthrop  "  came  forth  serene 
from  retirement  "  to  allay  the  storm  aroused  by  his  bitter 
rival,  Dudley." 

The  colonies  were,  however,  so  connected  with  the  mother 
country  and  with  each  other  that  their  interests  very  soon 
forced  them  into  a  union  for  common  defense.  The  arrest 
of  Alden  and  Standish  were  attempts  to  make  assurance 
doubly  sure  that  a  satisfactory  examination  should  be  entered 
into,  either  in  Plymouth  or  in  Massachusetts,  that  they  might 
have  a  reasonable  explanation  ready  when  called  upon  by  the 
government  in  England  and  by  Lords  Say  and  Brooke.  The 
importance  of  this  is  more  manifest  when  we  recall  that  the 
wicked  Laud  was  at  the  helm  of  state. 

But  the  most  singular  feature  of  this  case  is  the  undoubted 
fact  that  Dudley  was  the  one,  and  only  one,  among  his  asso 
ciates  who  did  not  .approve  of  the  action  of  Massachusetts  in 
this  affair.  He  seems  to  have  been  censured  for  opposition 
to  Plymouth  in  the  matter,  when  he  was  always  really  on  her 

1  Goodwin's  Pilgrim  Republic,  382-384. 

2  Winthrop,  i.  131. 


176  THOMAS   DUDLEY  [CH.  xvn 

side  of  it.  He  was  clear-sighted  enough  to  discover  earlier 
than  his  associates  what  they  all  saw  and  accepted  at  last, 
that  Hocking  was  himself  wholly  in  fault.  The  action  of 
Dudley  in  enforcing,  as  the  executive,  the  opinion  of  a  major 
ity  of  the  Court  must  not  be  regarded  as  declaring  his  own 
personal  opinion.  We  have,  fortunately,  evidence  to  direct 
us  in  discovering  his  own  views  of  this  case,  which  Bradford 
calls  "  one  of  the  saddest  things  that  befell  them  since  they 
came." 

Cotton  Mather  was  almost  contemporary  with  Dudley,  and 
knew  many  men  who  had  taken  part  in  these  matters.  The 
following  is  believed  to  be  his  statement :  "  When  it  was 
thought  meet  to  make  a  change,  the  lot  of  advancement  fell 
in  the  first  place  upon  Mr.  Dudley,  who  was  the  first  that 
succeeded  Mr.  Winthrop  in  the  governor's  place,  into  which 
he  was  chosen  at  the  Court  of  Election  in  the  year  1634 ;  in 
which  year  there  falling  out  some  occurrences  of  more  diffi 
culty  than  before,  Mr.  Dudley  was  in  a  needful  hour  called 
to  the  government;1  for  in  the  case  that  concerned  Hock 
ing,  of  [Piscataway]  who  was  slain  at  Kennebec  by  some  of 
Plymouth,  Mr.  Dudley  differed  from  all  the  rest  of  the  bench, 
and  yet  was  concluded  afterwards  to  be  in  the  right ; 2  and 
peradventure,  if  he  had  not  been  so  steadfast  fixed  to  his 
own  principles  and  judgment,  but  to  have  been  swayed  by 
the  bias  of  other  men's  inclinations,  some  inconvenience 
might  have  fallen  out ;  for  the  person  murdered  was  one  that 
belonged  to  the  Lord  Say,  who  was  better  known  to  Dudley 
than  to  any  other  gentleman  upon  the  bench,  yet  that  did 
not  sway  him  to  alter  his  judgment  when  he  saw  he  had  rea 
son  on  his  side ; 3  yet,  did  he  not  passionately  [or,  we  think, 

1  Mather  seems  to  consider  it  fortunate  that  in  this  unusual  difficulty 
the  clear  head  of  Dudley  was  at  the  helm  of  state. 

2  If  this  is  correct,  Dudley  was  in  favor  of  Plymouth  and  against 
Hocking  from  the  first,  and  in  opposition  to  the  other  members  of  the 
General  Court;  the  friends  of  the  Pilgrims  have  therefore  unjustly 
censured  him  and  failed  to  comprehend  his  real  position  in  this  case. 

3  This  seems  to  show  that  he  was  firmly  against  Hocking  and  on  the 
side  of  Plymouth. 


1634]  THE   HOCKING   CASE  177 

*  irascibly ']  oppose  those  that  differed  from  him,  but  pla 
cidly  [as  was  his  general  custom  and  excellent  judicial  man 
ner]  bore  their  dissent.1  Dudley's  wisdom  in  managing  this 
business  will  best  be  understood  by  his  own  beautiful  let 
ters,  [two  in  number,]  to  Mr.  Bradford,  the  ancient  governor 
of  Plymouth,  though  at  that  time  another  [Prence]  was  in 
place." 

Letter  of  Thomas  Dudley  to  Governor  William  Bradford 
of  Plymouth  Plantation  :  — 

GOOD  SIR,  —  I  have  received  your  letters  by  Captain 
Standish,  and  am  unfainly  glad  of  God's  mercy  towards  you 
in  the  recovery  of  your  health,  or  some  way  thereto.  For 
the  business  you  write  of,  I  thought  meet  to  answer  a  word 
or  two  to  yourself,  leaving  the  answer  of  your  governor's 
letter  to  our  Court,  to  whom  the  same,  together  with  myself 
is  directed.  I  conceive  (till  I  hear  new  matter  to  the  con 
trary)  that  your  Patent  may  warrant  your  resistance  of  any 
English  from  trading  at  Kennebec,  and  that  blood  of  Hock 
ing,  and  the  party  he  slew,  will  be  required  at  his  hands. 
Yet  do  I  with  yourself  and  others  sorrow  for  their  deaths. 
I  think  likewise  that  your  general  (public)  letters  will  satisfy 
our  Court,  and  make  them  cease  from  any  further  intermed 
dling  in  the  matter. 

I  have  upon  the  same  letter  set  Mr.  Alden  at  liberty, 
and  his  sureties,  and  yet,  least  I  should  seem  to  neglect  the 
opinion  of  our  Court  and  the  frequent  speeches  of  others 
with  us,  I  have  bound  Captain  Standish  to  appear  the  third 
of  June  at  our  next  Court,  to  make  affidavit  for  the  copy  of 
the  Patent,  and  to  manifest  the  circumstances  of  Hocking's 
provocations ;  both  which  will  tend  to  the  clearing  of  your 
innocency.2 

1  Proc.  Mass.  Hist.  Soc.,  1870,  217. 

2  It  is  evident  that  Dudley's  sympathies  are  strongly  with  Plymouth  ; 
but  with  executive  responsibility,  the  terror  of  Archbishop  Laud  and 
his  commission  for  regulating  plantations,  the  wrath  of  Lords  Say  and 
Brooke,  and  the  well-known  opinions  of  the  General  Court  impending 


i;8  THOMAS   DUDLEY  [CH.  xvn 

If  any  unkindness  hath  been  taken  from  what  we  have 
done,  let  it  be  further  and  better  considered  of,  I  pray  you ; 
and  I  hope  the  more  you  think  of  it,  the  less  blame  you  will 
impute  to  us.  At  least  you  ought  to  be  just  in  differencing 
them,  whose  opinions  concur  with  your  own,  from  others 
who  were  opposites ;  and  yet  I  may  truly  say,  I  have  spoken 
with  no  man  in  the  business  who  taxed  [accused  or  censured] 
you  most,  but  they  are  such  as  we  have  many  ways  hereto 
fore  declared  their  good  affections  towards  your  plantation. 
I  further  refer  myself  to  the  report  of  Captain  Standish  and 
Mr.  Alden ;  leaving  you  for  this  present  to  God's  blessing, 
wishing  unto  you  perfect  recovery  of  health,  and  the  long 
continuance  of  it.  I  desire  to  be  lovingly  remembered  to 
Mr.  Prence,  your  governor,  Mr.  Winslow,  Mr.  Brewster, 
whom  I  would  see  if  I  knew  how.  The  Lord  keep  you  all. 
Amen.  Your  very  loving  friend  in  our  Lord  Jesus, 

THOMAS  DUDLEY. 

NEWTOWN,  the  22  of  May,  I634.1 

If  we  are  correct,  Dudley,  as  executive,  had  in  the  in 
terests  of  peace  and  good  neighborhood  sent  a  letter  to 
the  Plymouth  government,  asking  the  important  question, 
"whether  they  will  try  the  Hocking  case  themselves  at 
Plymouth,  do  justice  in  the  case,  and  relieve  both  colonies 
from  English  resentment.2  And  he  had  received,  in  answer, 
a  very  disagreeable  letter,  which  was  of  such  an  inflammable 
nature  that  he  did  not  deem  it  wise  in  the  interests  of  peace 
and  good-fellowship  to  read  it  publicly  ;  he  was  certain  that 
the  bitterness  contained  in  it  would  tend  to  interrupt  inter 
colonial  friendship  and  comity,  as  it  did,  in  fact,  when  finally 

over  him,  he  felt  it  a  solemn  duty  to  take  security  that  Plymouth  would 
have  the  case  determined  according  to  the  law  and  evidence  for  the 
safety  of  all  the  colonies  and  protection  against  their  common  enemies 
in  England.  It  was  of  vital  importance  to  Massachusetts  that  nothing 
bordering  on  lawlessness  might  furnish  excuse  for  English  interference 
with  their  government. 

1  Bradford's  Hist.  Plym.  Plant.,  §§  200,  201. 

2  Mass.  Col.  Rec.,  i.  119. 


1634]  THE   HOCKING   CASE  179 

presented.  He  appears  in  this  transaction  in  the  noble  atti 
tude  of  a  peacemaker  and  Christian  gentleman,  doing  all  in 
his  power  to  prevent  a  further  breach  between  the  sister 
colonies.  Dudley,  bent  upon  this  course,  withheld  as  long 
as  he  reasonably  could  from  the  Court  of  Massachusetts  the 
discourteous  answer  which  he  had  received  from  Plymouth. 
He  was,  however,  forced  by  the  warlike  Standish  at  last  to 
present  it  and  take  the  consequences.  The  purport  and 
drift  of  this  answer  is  manifest  from  the  satisfaction  of 
Standish  in  calling  for  the  reading  of  it,  and  the  wrath  which 
it  called  forth  in  the  Court  of  Massachusetts.  The  fore 
thought  and  wisdom  of  Dudley  in  this  matter  are  clearly 
vindicated.  He  was  convinced  that  his  friend  Lord  Say  had 
no  case,  and  that  the  needful  thing  was  for  both  parties  to 
possess  themselves  in  patience,  and  that  perfect  reconcilia 
tion  would  follow  their  sober  second  thought ;  and  the  event 
proved  that  he  was  correct.  The  manly  dignity  and  strength 
of  Dudley  among  his  contemporaries  is  revealed  in  this  case 
clearly  and  distinctly.  We  possess,  fortunately,  another  let 
ter  of  Dudley,  which  we  think  fully  sustains  the  theory 
which  we  have  presented  of  his  position  :  — 

SIR,  —  I  am  right  sorry  for  the  news  which  Captain 
Standish  and  other  your  neighbors  and  my  beloved  friends 
will  bring  unto  Plymouth,  wherein  I  suffer  with  you  by  reason 
of  my  opinion  which  is  different  from  others,  who  are  Godly 
and  wise  amongst  us  here ;  the  reverence  of  whose  judgments 
causes  me  to  suspect  mine  own  ignorance,  yet  must  I  remain 
in  it,  till  I  be  convinced  thereof.1  I  had  thought  not  to  have 
shown  your  letter  to  any,  but  to  have  done  my  best  to  recon 
cile  differences  betwixt  us,  in  the  best  season  and  manner  I 
could ;  but  Captain  Standish  requiring  an  answer  thereof 
publicly  in  the  Court,  I  was  forced  to  produce  it,  and  that 

1  It  appears  that  he  was  suffering  alone  with  Plymouth,  and  on  its 
side  of  the  question,  yet  without  conceit  of  opinion,  and  even  with 
reverence  for  the  judgments  of  his  opponents.  His  attitude  is  most 
excellent,  devoid  of  any  diplomatic  effort  to  win  favor  to  himself. 


i8o  THOMAS   DUDLEY  [CH.  xvn 

made  the  breach  so  wide,  as  he  can  tell  you.  [This  result 
Dudley  strove  in  vain  to  avoid.]  I  propounded  to  the  Court 
to  answer  Mr.  Prince's  letter,  your  governor,  but  the  Court 
said  it  required  no  answer,  it  being  an  answer  to  a  former 
letter  of  ours.  I  pray  you  certify  Mr.  Prince  so  much,  and 
others  whom  it  concerneth  (that  no  neglect  or  ill  manners 
be  imputed  to  me)  thereabout.1  The  late  letters  I  received 
from  England,  wrought  in  me  divers  fears  of  some  trials 
which  are  like  to  fall  upon  us  ;  and  this  unhappy  conten 
tion  between  you  and  us,  and  between  you  and  Piscataqua, 
will  hasten  them,  if  God  with  an  extraordinary  hand  do  not 
help  us.  To  reconcile  this  for  the  present  will  be  very  diffi 
cult,  but  time  cooleth  distempers  ;  and  a  common  danger 
approaching  to  us  both,  will  necessitate  our  writing  again  : 
I  pray  you  therefore,  Sir,  set  your  wisdom  and  patience  at 
work  and  exhort  others  to  the  same,  that  things  may  not 
proceed  from  bad  to  worse.  So  making  our  contentions  like 
the  bars  of  a  castle,2  by  that  a  way  of  peace  may  be  kept 
open,  whereat  the  God  of  peace  may  have  entrance  in  his 
own  time.  If  you  suffer  wrong  it  shall  be  your  honor  to 
bear  it  patiently  ;  but  I  go  too  far  needlessly  in  putting 
you  in  mind  of  these  things.3  God  hath  done  great  things 
for  you,  and  I  desire  his  blessings  Vnay  be  multiplied  upon 
you  more.  I  will  commit  no  more  to  writing  ;  but  com 
mending  myself  to  your  prayers,  I  am  your  truly  loving 

friend  in  our  Lord  Jesus, 

THOMAS  DUDLEY. 
NEWTOWN,  June  4th, 


1  This  solicitude  respecting  good  manners  is  characteristic  of  him. 
We  desire  always  to  emphasize  the  fact  that  the  usages  of  good  society 
became  him  as  a  part  of  his  nature. 

2  The  words  "  bars  of  a  castle  "  are  from  Prov.  xviii.  19  :  "A  brother 
offended  is  harder  to  be  won  than  a  strong  city  ;  and  such  contentions 
are  like  the  bars  of  a  castle." 

8  Mr.  Goodwin,  the  historian  of  Plymouth,  evidently  regards  this  last 
Christian  teaching  of  Dudley  as  insincere,  sentimental  cant.  We  think, 
on  the  contrary,  that  he  spoke  words  of  soberness  and  reason,  springing 
from  an  earnest  purpose  to  do  justice. 

4  Bradford's  Hist.  Plym.  Plant.,  §  201. 


1634]  THE   HOCKING   CASE  181 

Mather  further  relates,  that  "  By  this  letter  it  appears  that 
Mr.  Dudley  was  a  very  wise  man,  and  knew  how  to  express 
his  mind  in  apt  and  gentle  expressions,  not  willing  to  provoke 
others,  although  he  were  never  so  confident  that  he  was  in 
the  right ;  for  by  his  wise  and  moderate  proceedings  in  the 
case,  he  satisfied  their  neighbors  at  Plymouth,  who  thought 
they  were  injured  by  the  unnecessary  intrusion  of  the  juris 
diction  of  the  Massachusetts,  in  a  matter  which  did  not  really 
concern  them,  and  maintained  peace  at  home  amongst  them 
that  so  much  differed  from  him  in  the  case  then  depending 
before  them."1 

Governor  Bradford  is  very  charitable  to  the  action  of  Mas 
sachusetts  in  this  matter.2 

We  think  it  is  quite  proper  at  this  point  to  ask  whether  it 
was  the  "excellent  Mr.  Winthrop  "  who  did  the  most  to  allay 
this  storm,  or  the  wise,  deliberate,  peace-loving  Dudley? 
And  again,  whether  it  is  not  quite  certain  that  "  Mr.  Dudley 
did  not  at  all  arouse  the  storm  ? "  Also  if  it  is  not,  on  the 
whole,  reasonably  clear  that  heretofore  great  injustice  has 
been  done  in  this  case  to  the  patriotic  services  of  Dudley  ? 

The  great  reconciliation  with  Plymouth  was  completed, 
and  happiness  restored  on  this  side  of  the  ocean ;  but  from 
England,  louder,  clearer,  and  more  ominous  were  the  mutter- 
ings  of  discontent  towards  the  colonies,  and  in  particular 
towards  Massachusetts. 

Archbishop  Laud  and  other  members  of  the  Privy  Council 
had  been  informed  by  disaffected  persons,  who  were  always 
busy  in  stirring  up  the  English  government  against  New 
England  and  the  charter  of  Massachusetts,  that  the  Puritans, 
among  other  wrong-doings,  were  setting  up  in  America  an 
independent  church  and  state;  hence  in  February,  1634,  a 
number  of  ships  departing  from  England  were  intercepted, 
and  their  passengers  required  to  take  the  oath  of  allegiance 
to  the  English  crown,  and  to  promise  conformity  with  the 
Prayer-Book. 

1  Proc.  Mass.  Hist.  Soc.,  Jan.  1870,  218. 

2  Bradford's  Hist  Plym.  Plant.,  §  202. 


182  THOMAS    DUDLEY  [CH.  xvn 

But  on  the  28th  day  of  April,  1634,  a  commission  was 
issued,  with  Laud  at  the  head  of  it,  to  take  charge  of  the 
American  colonies,  to  hear  complaints,  to  secure  conformity, 
to  make  laws,  "  ordinances  and  constitutions,  concerning  the 
state  public  of  the  said  colonies  or  utility  of  private  persons, 
and  their  lands,  goods,"  etc.  There  were  twelve  of  these 
commissioners,  and  they  were  further  directed  as  follows : 
"  And  we  do,  furthermore,  give  unto  you,  or  any  five  or  more 
of  you,  letters  patent,  and  other  writings  whatsoever,  of  us 
or  of  our  royal  predecessors  granted,  for  or  concerning  the 
planting  of  any  colonies,  in  any  countries,  provinces,  islands 
or  territories  whatsoever,  beyond  the  seas,  and  if,  upon  view 
thereof,  the  same  shall  appear  to  you,  or  any  five  or  more 
of  you,  to  have  been  surreptitiously  and  unduly  obtained,  or 
that  any  privileges  or  liberties  therein  granted,  be  hurtful  to 
us,  our  crown  or  prerogative  royal,  or  to  any  foreign  princes, 
to  cause  the  same,  according  to  the  laws  and  customs  of  our 
realm  of  England,  to  be  revoked,  and  to  do  all  other  things 
which  shall  be  necessary,  for  the  wholesome  government  and 
protection  of  the  said  colonies  and  our  people  therein  abid 
ing."  l  Here  was  unlimited  power  over  the  fortunes  of  the 
colony  in  the  hands  of  its  most  relentless  and  malignant 
enemies. 

1  Hutchinson,  App.,  i.  502-505. 


CHAPTER   XVIII 

WE  constantly  note  the  compassion  of  writers  for  Win- 
throp  ;  he  was  worthy  of  it,  but  it  is  a  mistake  to  reverence 
him  as  the  entire  government  of  the  colony,  in  these  trying 
times  when  the  little  state  had  to  prepare  to  defend  itself 
against  the  tyranny  of  a  nation  possessing  the  most  power 
ful  naval  force  in  the  world.  We  ought  to  regard  with 
admiration  the  heroic  energy,  the  Spartan  bravery,  the  sub 
lime  trust  in  God  and  a  righteous  cause,  which  nerved  these 
patriots  to  arm  themselves  in  the  autumn  of  1634  to  defend 
their  liberties  and  their  new-made  homes  on  the  shores  of 
Massachusetts  Bay.  Neither  will  the  world  soon  forget  who 
was  the  governor  of  the  old  commonwealth  in  this  hour  of 
her  trial.  American  oratory  for  more  than  a  century  has, 
on  the  annual  national  festival  of  the  Fourth  of  July,  set 
forth  the  magnificent  fortitude  of  our  fathers  in  the  Revolu 
tion,  in  arms  against  the  same  Britons ;  but  there  were  more 
than  four  millions  of  Americans  then,  while  Governor  Dud 
ley  ruled  over  only  four  thousand  Englishmen  in  1634. 

Their  records  tell  the  pathetic  story  of  their  solicitude  for 
the  preservation  of  that  which  was  dear  to  them,  and  which 
the  world  is  beginning  at  last  to  see  was  of  priceless  value 
in  the  enfranchisement  of  our  race. 

The  General  Court  ordered,  September  3,  1634,  "That 
there  should  be  a  platform  made  on  the  north  east  side  of 
Castle  Island,  and  an  house  built  on  the  top  of  the  hill  to 
defend  the  said  platform.  It  was  further  ordered,  that  war 
rants  shall  be  sent  to  the  constable  of  every  plantation,  to 
send  in  money  or  workmen  to  make  that  which  they  have 
already  done,  three  days  apiece  towards  the  fort  at  Boston, 
both  of  new  comers  and  others  for  every  hand  able  to  work 


184  THOMAS   DUDLEY  [CH.  xvm 

(except  magistrates  and  .ministers)  that  are  behind,  to  be 
delivered  to  Captain  Underbill,  before  the  next  Court  of 
Assistants."  l  And  on  the  same  day  power  was  given  to  im 
press  men  for  the  public  works.  The  colony  now  seemed 
like  one  armed  camp,  "  facing  fearful  odds  "  and  shrinking 
from  no  responsibilities,  for  their  faith  was  in  Jehovah  him 
self,  whose  breath  withered  the  hosts  of  Sennacherib.  They 
proceeded  to  fortify  Boston,  Dorchester,  Charlestown,  Castle 
Island,  and  Salem. 

"  It  is  ordered,  that  the  captains  shall  train  their  bands 
once  every  month,  giving  a  week's  warning  before  (except 
in  July  and  August),  and  that  the  captain  shall  have  liberty 
to  train  all  such  unskillful  men  as  are  at  their  own  hands,  so 
often  as  they  please,  provided  they  exceed  not  three  days  in 
a  week."  2 

They  appointed  a  committee  with  power  to  manage  war 
for  a  year,  and  we  find  some  writers  declaring  Winthrop  to 
have  been  at  the  head  of  this  committee ;  but  Dudley  was 
now  first  in  war.  "  It  is  ordered,  that  the  present  governor 
[Thomas  Dudley],  John  Winthrop  Senior,  John  Haynes, 
John  Humfrey,  and  John  Endicott,  Esq.,  shall  have  power 
to  consult,  direct,  and  give  command  for  the  managing  and 
ordering  of  any  war  that  may  befall  us,  for  the  space  of  a 
year  next  ensuing,  and  till  further  order  to  be  taken  herein."3 
Dudley  was  the  foremost  soldier  in  the  colony.  He  was  in 
1644  chosen  sergeant  major  general,  or  commander-in-chief, 
of  the  forces  of  the  colony. 

The  Court  proceeds  further  in  preparations  for  war,  and 
orders  a  beacon  forthwith  on  "  the  sentry  hill  [Beacon  Hill] 
at  Boston,  to  give  notice  to  the  country  of  any  danger,  and 
that  there  shall  be  a  ward  of  one  person  kept  there  from  the 
first  of  April  to  the  last  of  September,  and  that  upon  the 
discovery  of  any  danger,  the  beacon  shall  be  fired,  an  alarm 
given,  as  also  messengers  presently  sent  by  that  town  where 
the  danger  is  discovered,  to  all  other  towns  within  this  juris 
diction."4 
1  Mass.  Col.  Rec.,  i.  123.  2  Ib.,  i.  124.  8  Ib.,  i.  125.  4  Ib.,  i.  137. 


11  iltf 

' 


•'ntuK  wuk  »  s»  s*i^  ^ 

-  " 

J<;: 


FACSIMILE   OF   MASSACHUSETTS 


Hgl 


JSETTS   CHARTER  OF   1629 


1634]  THE   CHARTER   ANNULLED  185 

Massachusetts  was  now  ordered  to  lay  its  charter  before 
the  Privy  Council,  with  the  purpose  if  it  was  once  there,  no 
doubt,  to  extinguish  it. 

Winthrop  says,  "  Mr.  Cradock  wrote  to  the  governor  [Mr. 
Dudley]  and  assistants,  and  sent  a  copy  of  the  Council's 
order,  whereby  we  were  required  to  send  over  our  patent. 
Upon  long  consultation  whether  we  should  return  answer  or 
not,  we  agreed,  and  returned  answer  to  Mr.  Cradock,  excus 
ing  that  it  could  not  be  done  but  by  a  General  Court,  which 
was  to  be  holden  in  September  next."  l 

And  thus,  by  first  one  excuse  and  then  by  another,  they 
put  off  the  sending  of  the  charter,  delaying  with  Fabian 
policy  for  a  more  convenient  season,  which  never  came.  "  A 
writ  of  quo  warranto  was  issued  against  the  charter,  and  it 
was  declared  null  and  void,  and  Gorges  was  created  vice 
regal  governor  of  New  England.  But  death  swept  off  their 
arch-enemy  Mason  at  a  critical  moment,  and  the  British  gov 
ernment  found  all  it  could  attend  to  henceforth  for  some 
time,  in  caring  for  the  discontented  factions  at  home."  2 

"  The  elements  that  gave  energy  to  a  commonwealth,  in 
peace  or  war,  are  strikingly  disclosed  and  illustrated  in  the 
history  of  Massachusetts  under  the  first  charter.  A  more 
efficient  government  for  the  preservation  of  order,  security, 
and  the  common  welfare  has  never  existed  ;  and  the  rapidity 
with  which  the  public  resources  were  brought  to  bear  in 
military  movements,  while  it  was  repeated  at  the  opening  of 
the  war  of  Independence,  has  never  been  surpassed,  even  in 
our  day,  which  has  witnessed  the  uprising  in  their  might  of 
a  great  people  to  save  the  national  life."  3 

The  unpopularity  of  Winthrop  at  this  time  appears  in  the 
appointment  of  a  committee  at  the  first  Court  after  his  de 
parture  from  office,  "  to  take  an  account  of  John  Winthrop, 
Esq.,  for  such  commodities  as  he  hath  received  of  the  com- 

1  Winthrop,  i.  *I37- 

2  Maverick's  Brief  Description  of  N.  E.,  1660,  18. 

8  Mass.,  Its  Early  Hist.,  Lect.  Lowell  Inst.,  by  Charles  W.  Upham, 
245,  246. 


i86  THOMAS   DUDLEY  [CH.  xvm 

mon  stock.1  The  account  of  Governor  Winthrop  is  duly 
recorded  on  the  Court  record  the  next  September.2  Hutch- 
inson  says,  "  After  he  was  out  of  the  chair,  he  was  questioned 
in  such  a  manner,  as  appears  to  have  been  disagreeable 
to  him,  concerning  his  receipts  and  disbursements  for  the 
public  during  his  administration.  Having  discharged  him 
self  with  great  honor  .  .  ."  3  Robert  C.  Winthrop  says  in 
regard  to  this  that  he  is  not  disposed  to  complain  of  the  re 
quest  for  an  account.  "  It  exhibits  the  scrupulous  exactness 
which  was  demanded  of  the  servants  of  the  commonwealth 
in  those  early  days,  and  inculcates  a  lesson  of  responsibility 
which  may  well  be  studied  by  their  successors."4  It  was 
not,  however,  the  request  for  the  account  that  disturbed  the 
mind  of  Governor  Winthrop.  No  honest  man  would  object 
to  that ;  it  was  the  manner  in  which  it  was  done,  it  was  the 
critical  spirit  which  was  abroad,  it  was  "  ingratitude,  more 
strong  than  traitors'  arms,"  that  went  to  his  heart.  He 
nobly  vindicated  himself,  and  in  that  effort  gave  an  interior 
view  of  his  service  to  the  public  which  is  priceless. 

The  friends  and  admirers  of  Governor  Dudley  may  well 
congratulate  themselves  that  nowhere  on  the  public  records 
is  to  be  found  any  attempt  to  put  him  under  investigation, 
or  his  administrations,  civil,  military,  or  judicial,  which  in 
whole  or  in  part  continued  through  the  twenty-three  most 
important  years,  under  the  first  charter. 

The  Court  turned  aside  from  the  consideration  of  a  fearful 
foreign  war  and  preparations  to  resist  cruel  enemies,  to  make 
war  upon  the  vain  fashions  of  society,  as  follows :  "  The 
Court,  taking  into  consideration  the  great,  superfluous,  and 
unnecessary  expenses  occasioned  by  reason  of  some  new  and 
immodest  fashions,  as  also  the  ordinary  wearing  of  silver, 
gold,  and  silk  laces,  girdles,  hat  bands,  etc.,  hath  therefore 
ordered  that  no  person,  either  man  or  woman,  shall  hereafter 
make  or  buy  any  apparel,  either  woolen,  silk,  or  linen,  with 

1  Mass.  Col.  Rec.,  i.  120.  a  Ib.,  i.  130. 

8  Hutchinson,  i.  40. 

4  Life  and  Letters  of  John  Winthrop,  ii.  123. 


1634]          SIMPLICITY   IN   DRESS   COMMENDED  187 

any  lace  on  it,  silver,  gold,  silk  or  thread,  under  the  penalty 
of  forfeiture  of  such  cloths,  etc. 

"  Also  that  no  person,  either  man  or  woman,  shall  make 
or  buy  any  slashed  clothes,  other  than  one  slash  in  each 
sleeve,  and  another  in  the  back ;  also  all  cutworks,  embroid 
ered  or  needle-work  caps,  bands,  and  rayles,  are  forbidden 
hereafter  to  be  made  and  worn,  under  the  aforesaid  penalty ; 
also,  all  gold  or  silver  girdles,  hatbands,  belts,  ruffs,  beaver 
hats,  are  prohibited  to  be  bought  and  worn  hereafter  under 
the  aforesaid  penalty,  etc. 

"  Provided,  and  it  is  the  meaning  of  the  Court,  that  men 
and  women  shall  have  liberty  to  wear  out  such  apparel  as 
they  have  now  provided  of  (except  the  immoderate  great 
sleeves,  slashed  apparel,  immoderate  great  rayles,  long  wings, 
etc.) ;  this  order  to  take  place  a  fortnight  after  the  publish 
ing  thereof." l 

"  It  is  further  ordered,  that  no  person  whatsoever  shall 
either  buy  or  sell  any  tobacco  within  this  jurisdiction  after 
the  last  of  September  next."2  "Whereas  complaint  hath 
been  made  to  this  Court  that  divers  persons  within  this  juris 
diction  do  usually  absent  themselves  from  church  meetings 
upon  the  Lord's  day,  power  is  therefore  given  to  any  two 
assistants  to  hear  and  censure,  either  by  fine  or  imprison 
ment  (at  their  discretion),  all  misdemeanors  of  that  kind 
committed  by  any  inhabitant  within  this  jurisdiction."  3 

It  certainly  is  matter  of  surprise  that  even  among  these 
Puritans,  in  the  administration  of  Dudley,  something  of  the 
"  vain  pomp  and  glory  of  this  world  "  appears  in  the  follow 
ing  :  "  Further  it  is  ordered,  that  at  every  General  Court 
there  shall  be  six  men  appointed  by  the  governor  for  the 
time  being,  out  of  the  town  where  he  lives,  to  attend,  with 
halberts  and  swords,  upon  the  person  of  the  governor,  and 
the  rest  of  the  members  of  the  Court,  during  the  space  of 
the  first  day  of  every  General  Court,  and  that  there  shall  be 
two  men  appointed  by  the  governor  to  attend,  in  like  man 
ner,  at  every  particular  Court,  at  the  public  charge."  4 
1  Mass.  Col.  Rec.,  i.  126.  2  Ib.,  i.  236.  8  Ib.,  i.  140.  *  Ib.,  i.  142. 


i88  THOMAS   DUDLEY  [CH.  xvm 

The  question  which  caused  the  greatest  trouble  to  the 
Court  in  this  September  session  was  the  desire  of  Hooker 
and  his  church  to  remove  to  Connecticut,  which  they  ac 
complished  two  years  later.  Different  reasons  have  been 
assigned  for  their  anxiety  to  depart.  It  has  been  thought 
that  Cotton  and  Hooker  were  in  the  way  of  each  other,  and 
that  they  did  not  agree  well.  It  has  been  suggested  that 
the  approaching  Antinomian  troubles  hastened  their  depar 
ture.  These  do  not  appear  on  the  record  as  the  causes, 
and  are  a  matter  therefore  of  inference.  Winthrop  says  :  — 

"  The  principal  reasons  for  their  removal  were,  I.  Their 
want  of  accommodation  for  their  cattle,  so  as  they  were  not 
able  to  maintain  their  ministers,  nor  could  receive  any  more 
of  their  friends  to  help  them ;  and  here  it  was  alleged  by 
Mr.  Hooker,  as  a  fundamental  error,  that  towns  were  set  so 
near  each  to  other.  2.  The  fruitfulness  and  commodious- 
ness  of  Connecticut,  and  the  danger  of  having  it  possessed 
by  others,  Dutch  or  English.  3.  The  strong  bent  of  their 
spirits  to  remove  thither. 

"  Against  these  it  was  said,  i.  That,  in  point  of  con 
science,  they  ought  not  to  depart  from  us,  being  knit  to  us 
in  one  body,  and  bound  by  oath  to  seek  the  welfare  of  this 
commonwealth,  etc."  l  "  Upon  these  and  other  arguments 
the  Court  being  divided,  it  was  put  to  vote ;  and  of  the 
deputies,  fifteen  were  for  their  departure,  and  ten  against  it. 
The  governor  [Thomas  Dudley]  and  two  assistants  were  for 
it,  and  the  deputy  [Roger  Ludlow]  and  all  the  rest  of  the 
assistants  were  against  it  (except  the  secretary,2  who  gave 
no  vote)  ;  whereupon  no  record  was  entered,  because  there 
were  not  six  assistants  in  the  vote,  as  the  patent  requires.3 

1  Winthrop,  i.  *i4o. 

2  Simon  Bradstreet,  son-in-law  of  Dudley,  who  was  with  him  from 
Cambridge,  where  the  petitioners  resided. 

8  It  is  quite  possible  that  Governor  John  Haynes  voted  with  Gov 
ernor  Dudley  and  the  Cambridge  faction,  to  let  these  people  depart  for 
Connecticut ;  both  he  and  Governor  Ludlow  joined  the  emigrants  when 
they  finally  went. 


i634]  AN   ERA  OF   REVOLUTION  189 

Upon  this  grew  great  difference  between  the  governor 
[Thomas  Dudley]  and  assistants,  and  the  deputies.  They 
would  not  yield  the  assistants  a  negative  voice,  and  the 
others  [that  is,  the  governor  and  assistants],  considering  how 
dangerous  it  might  be  to  the  commonwealth,  if  they  should 
not  keep  that  strength  to  balance  the  greater  number  of  the 
deputies,  thought  it  safe  to  stand  upon  it."  a 

The  negative  voice  became  a  vital  question  in  the  politics 
of  the  colony  in  1643.  The  colony  was  powerless  to  let 
Hooker  and  his  associate  emigrate  to  Connecticut,  so  they 
all  turned  to  the  ministers  for  light  and  consolation,  and 
waited  two  years  for  the  way  to  open,  and  for  Massachusetts 
to  learn  how  foolish  it  was  to  hold  unwilling  and  restless 
people  who  were  constantly  considering  the  perfection  of 
the  place  where  they  wished  to  be,  and  could  find  no  con 
tentment  until  they  had  freedom  to  go  and  abide  on  that 
desired  spot  of  earth. 

Dudley  saw  the  uselessness  of  the  effort  to  retain  these 
people  from  the  first,  and  did  what  he  could  to  set  them 
free ;  but  he  had  to  yield  to  the  opinion  of  the  majority  and 
wait  for  the  people  of  Massachusetts  to  learn  that  they  could 
not  retain  them  for  a  long  time  against  their  fixed  determi 
nation  to  depart.  He  exercised  at  all  times  distinguished 
patience  with  the  adverse  opinions  of  other  people.  This 
ennobled  his  life,  and  rendered  his  character  greater  in  the 
minds  of  his  contemporaries,  and  ought  to  extend  its  influ 
ence  more  and  more  in  public  estimation. 

He  was  at  the  head  of  the  colony  in  this  most  remarkable 
and  revolutionary  period,  when  the  people  were  contending 
for  and  securing  their  share  in  the  government,  when  perils 
at  home  were  only  surpassed  by  far  more  ominous  perils 
from  abroad.  There  was  at  the  helm  of  state  then  a  man 
both  vigilant  and  sagacious  ;  there  was  neither  doubt  nor 
confusion  in  the  administration,  and  we  discover  no  mistakes 
which  lie  at  the  door  of  the  governor.  It  is  sometimes 
thought  that  the  most  able  man  in  the  colony  at  that  time 
1  Winthrop,  i.  *i4i. 


190  THOMAS   DUDLEY  [CH.  xvm 

was  the  Rev.  John  Cotton,  and  that  its  success  was  due  to 
his  wisdom.  But  no  minister  was  permitted  to  hold  civil 
office ;  he  could  only  advise,  and  had  no  living  voice  or  vote 
in  the  government.  Dudley  did  not  affiliate  very  much  with 
him  in  America,  although  they  were  warm  friends  in  Eng 
land,  and  he  appears  to  have  been  the  only  magistrate  who 
had  the  courage  to  say  to  Cotton  and  to  the  other  ministers, 
in  a  polite,  graceful,  and  most  convincing  manner :  Please  to 
attend  to  your  own  legitimate  calling. 

Governor  Dudley  was,  first,  conscientious  ;  second,  utterly 
fearless ;  third,  remarkably  gifted  with  common  sense,  liberal 
in  politics,  guided  by  principles  of  permanent  importance 
rather  than  by  temporary  expedients.  Indeed,  he  and  other 
Puritans  believed  that  by  adhering  to  the  literal  words  of 
the  Old  Testament,  regarded  as  a  statute  book,  they  were 
certain  to  be  right,  since  they  were  guided  by  the  Eternal 
and  Unchangeable,  indeed  by  Truth  itself. 

The  attempt  has  been  made  to  detract  from  his  public 
importance,  on  the  ground  that  he  was  permitted  to  hold  the 
office  of  governor  only  four  terms  of  one  year  each,  while 
Governor  Winthrop  enjoyed  the  public  confidence  for  longer 
periods.  This  comparison  of  popularity  has  no  force,  since 
the  people  had  only  just  begun  to  govern  themselves,  and 
rotation  in  the  office  of  governor  was  a  cardinal  topic  at  the 
end  of  Governor  Winthrop's  first  term  as  it  never  had  been 
before.  Dudley  himself,  as  I  have  already  pointed  out,  was 
no  doubt  a  strong  advocate  of  this  rule,  for  he  took  to  him 
self  the  office  of  governship  not  oftener  than  once  in  five 
years.  His  friend  and  neighbor,  John  Haynes,  of  the  same 
Cambridge  faction,  succeeded  him  after  his  first  term  in 
office,  while  Dudley  was  elected  at  once  an  assistant.  If 
any  one  is  inclined  to  account  it  a  day  of  small  things,  and 
to  belittle  the  conspicuous  characters  in  this  undertaking  in 
Massachusetts,  it  would  be  well  for  him  to  remember  that 
"the  guiding  and  directing  force  was  supplied  by  an  ele 
ment  which  was  itself  moulded  on  the  banks  of  the  Cam 
and  the  Isis,  under  the  influence  and  refinements  of  the  best 


1634]  DUDLEY  NOT  AN   OFFICE-SEEKER  191 

culture  which  the  England  of  that  day  could  give."  l  Dud 
ley,  it  is  true,  was  not  himself  a  university  man,  but  he  was 
a  very  studious  and  scholarly  person,  who  on  both  sides  of 
the  sea  removed  from  place  to  place  to  be  the  companion 
and  pupil  of  the  first  men  of  the  university,  and  thus  brought 
himself  in  touch  with  the  best  learning  of  his  period  through 
out  his  mature  years.  But  above  and  beyond  this  appears 
the  conclusive  fact  that,  without  deceit  or  political  subter 
fuge  he  sustained  himself  in  the  high  places  of  power,  retain 
ing  to  the  very  end  of  life  the  confidence  and  reverence  of 
the  wisest  and  best  men  among  his  contemporaries.  Nothing 
less  than  great  gifts,  great  acquirements,  and  great  virtues 
could  have  achieved  such  success. 

1  Franklin  B.  Dexter's  Influence  of  the  English  Universities  in  the 
Development  of  New  England. 


CHAPTER   XIX 

WE  delight  to  think  of  the  assistants  at  this  September 
Court,  1634,  entertained  at  the  house  of  Governor  Dudley,  in 
Cambridge,  as  they  had  been  received  by  Governor  Winthrop 
during  his  long  administration  at  his  home  in  Boston,  when 
the  Court  sat  in  that  town.1 

Governor  Dudley  was  now  in  his  prime,  affluent  in  worldly 
possessions,  rich  in  experience,  full  of  information  gathered 
from  books,  his  mind  stored  with  incidents  connected  with 
the  great  men  and  events  of  two  wonderful  generations  in 
English  history.  Here  he  then  sat  at  the  age  of  fifty-eight 
years,  at  the  head  of  his  table,  with  a  generous,  dignified 
manner,  dispensing  colonial  hospitality  and  entertaining  the 
nobility  of  Massachusetts  with  the  good  things  of  life. 

These  people  were  accustomed  to  society  and  fond  of  good 
cheer.  They  must  have  been  excellent  company,  at  least  for 
each  other,  scoffers  to  the  contrary  notwithstanding.  Anne 
Bradstreet  assures  us  that  her  father  was  "  A  Prizer  of  good 
Company."2  The  Rev.  Nathaniel  Rogers,  who  was  person 
ally  acquainted  with  Dudley,  said  of  him  :  — 

"  A  table-talker,  rich  in  sense, 
And  witty  without  wit's  pretense."  8 

Human  nature  has  much  in  common  under  all  conditions 
and  disguises.  Wise,  learned,  experienced,  and  good  men 
have  abundant  resources  for  entertainment,  especially  if  they 
possess  culture,  social  arts  and  graces,  sincerity  in  speech 
and  manner,  —  qualities  which  surely  distinguished  the  gov 
ernor  in  the  drawing-room  and  at  the  head  of  his  table. 

1  Winthrop,  i.  *I32,  *I44. 

2  Epitaph  on  Thomas  Dudley,  by  Anne  Bradstreet. 

8  History  of  Dudley  Family,  i.  83  ;  Mather's  Magnalia,  L  123. 


i634]          DUDLEY   AND  ENDICOTT   COMPARED  193 

Governor  Dudley  and  the  Court  did  what  they  could  to  re 
concile  the  Indian  tribes  to  each  other,  and  to  induce  them 
to  make  peace,  instead  of  stimulating  their  warlike  natures  to 
destroy  each  other.  This  shows  the  humane  and  excellent 
quality  of  these  Christian  people,  when  their  selfish  interests, 
in  the  estimation  of  those  who  seek  only  power  and  are 
influenced  by  the  greed  of  gain  to  revel  in  the  destruction  of 
weaker  races,  would  have  been  best  subserved  by  their  ruin. 
They  regarded  them  as  wards  committed  under  divine  ap 
pointment  to  their  care  and  protection. 

They  furnish  us  in  this  instance  with  a  lovely  picture  of 
the  power  and  influence  of  our  holy  religion  over  the  petty 
and  base  elements  in  human  nature.1 

A  favorite  method  of  reducing  the  relative  importance  and 
merit  of  Governor  Dudley  is  to  compare  him  and  match  him 
with  Governor  Endicott.  But  the  resemblance  between  them 
in  education,  in  refinement,  in  temper,  or  in  any  other  re 
spect,  was  slight  and  to  the  advantage  of  Dudley ;  they  were 
both  indeed  resolute,  vigorous  Puritans.  Governor  Dudley 
could  not  have  been  induced,  as  Endicott  was,  to  have  defaced 
"the  cross  in  the  British  ensign  at  Salem."  2 

He  was  not,  like  Endicott,  "  rash  and  without  discretion, 
taking  upon  him  more  authority  than  he  had,  and  not  seek 
ing  the  advice  of  the  Court."3  Dudley  was  never  in  con 
tempt  of  court  for  his  rashness,  and  forced,  like  Endicott,  to 
make  his  submission  and  acknowledgment  of  his  offense.4 

Governor  Dudley  was  also  too  large  a  man  to  allow  the 
arguments  against  the  cross  in  the  ensign  to  prevent  him 
from  unfurling  it  with  Harry  Vane  in  1636.  He  had 
marched  with  it  at  the  head  of  his  column  in  war,  and  was 
not  in  a  mood  to  share  in  its  mutilation  or  destruction.  The 
conduct  of  Governor  Winthrop  in  this  matter  of  the  ensign 
in  1636,  and  also  the  doubt  and  the  fear  of  the  whole  Court 
of  Assistants  in  this  miserable  business,  render  it  certain 

1  Winthrop,  i.  *I49;  Knowles's  Memoir  of  Roger  Williams,  97. 

2  Mass.  Col.  Rec.,  i.  137, 145,  146;  Winthrop,  i.  #150,  *i58,  and  note. 
8  Winthrop,  i.  *I58.  4  Mass.  Col.  Rec.,  i.  157. 


I94  THOMAS   DUDLEY  [CH.  xix 

that  Dudley  was  less  fanatical  than  the  Court,  than  Winthrop 
or  Endicott,  and  that  he  was  more  dignified  and  sensible  than 
any  of  them. 

The  last  official  act  of  Governor  Dudley,  according  to  Win 
throp,  in  his  administration  as  governor  in  1634-35,  was  as 
follows :  "  The  governor  and  assistants  sent  for  Mr.  Wil 
liams,  the  occasion  was,  for  that  he  had  taught  publicly,  that 
a  magistrate  ought  not  to  tender  an  oath  to  an  unregenerate 
man,  for  that  we  thereby  have  communion  with  a  wicked  man 
in  the  worship  of  God,  and  cause  him  to  take  the  name  of 
God  in  vain.  He  was  heard  before  all  the  ministers,  and 
very  clearly  confuted.  Mr.  Endicott  was  at  first  of  the  same 
opinion,  but  he  gave  place  to  the  truth."  l  Winthrop  seems 
to  leave  the  inference  that  Williams  did  not  give  place  to  the 
truth,  but  clung  to  his  error. 

Cotton  Mather  says:  "The  Court,  about  a  year  before  they 
proceeded  unto  the  banishment  of  this  incendiary,  sent  for 
the  pastors  of  the  neighboring  churches,  to  intimate  unto 
them  their  design,  of  thus  proceeding  against  him  ;  which 
yet  they  were  loath  to  do,  before  they  had  advised  the  elders 
of  it,  because  he  was  himself  an  elder.  Mr.  Cotton,  with  the 
consent  of  the  other  ministers,  presented  a  request  unto  the 
magistrates,  that  they  would  please  to  forbear  prosecuting 
of  him,  till  they  themselves,  with  their  churches,  had  in  a 
church-way  endeavored  his  conviction  and  repentance ;  for 
they  alleged,  that  they  hoped  his  violences  proceeded  rather 
from  a  misguided  conscience,  than  from  a  seditious  principle. 
The  governor  [Thomas  Dudley]  foretold  unto  them,  you  are 
deceived  in  the  man,  if  you  think  he  will  condescend  to  learn 
of  any  of  you  ;  however  the  proposal  of  the  ministers  was 
approved  and  allowed.  ...  He  renounced  them  all  as  no 
churches  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ."2 

Dudley  was  correct  in  his  estimate  of  Williams  and  of  the 
absence  of  the  childlike,  teachable  spirit  in  his  constitution. 
He  was  certain  that  they  might  as  well  argue  with  the  north 

1  Winthrop,  i.  *is8. 

3  Mather's  Magnalia,  ii.  bk.  vii.  chap.  ii.  §  5,  431,  432. 


1 634]  DUDLEY  AND   WILLIAMS  195 

wind,  and  this  opinion  of  him  was  fully  vindicated.  The  un 
tenable  position  taken  by  Williams  in  this  matter  shows  how 
little  he  comprehended  the  forces  of  civil  government.  The 
oath  is  made  even  now,  and  has  been  ever  since  that  day, 
the  formal  cement  which  binds  every  officer  of  government, 
professed  Christian  or  otherwise,  from  the  president  of  the 
republic  down  to  the  petty  officer  of  the  smallest  school 
district,  except  a  few  who  are  permitted  to  affirm.  It  is  in 
constant  use  in  court.  We  know  that  patriotism,  conscience, 
and  reverence  for  truth  are  the  real  forces  underlying,  but  it 
will  be  long  before  these  uses  of  oaths  will  disappear,  or  the 
question  of  regeneration  will  be  a  condition  precedent  to  the 
administering  of  them  to  officers-elect  or  to  witnesses  in 
court.  It  may  be  claimed  still  that  Williams  was  in  this 
matter  of  oaths  centuries  in  advance  of  his  age,  but  such  an 
assumption  is  not  important.  Dudley,  who  in  his  judicial 
service  was  in  the  constant  use  of  oaths,  was  justified  in 
regarding  these  doctrines  as  full  of  public  peril l  and  tending 
towards  anarchy.  We  are  required  to  examine  carefully  the 
share  Dudley  had  in  dealing  with  Williams,  because  most 
writers  who  defend  Williams  find  it  needful  to  say  bitter 
things  of  Dudley,  to  paint  him  with  dark  colors,  because  he 
has  now  become  the  standard  in  literature  representing  the 
bigotry  of  the  Massachusetts  Puritans. 

Governor  Winthrop  entered  earnestly  and  argumentatively 
into  the  reasons  for  the  action  of  the  colony  and  Court  in 
their  treatment  of  Williams,  and  one  can  discover  in  reading 
his  Journal  no  disapproval  of  the  attempt  of  the  Court  to 
send  Williams  to  England.  We  learn,  however,  from  the 
letters  of  Williams  that  Winthrop  had  at  that  very  same 
time,  certainly  not  in  very  good  faith  toward  his  associates  in 
the  government  of  Massachusetts,  put  it  into  the  head  of 
Williams  that  Rhode  Island  was  his  best  place  of  escape.2 

1  The  author  deems  it  to  be  his  duty  to  remark  that  he  personally  nei 
ther  adopts  the  public  estimate  of  the  value  of  oaths,  nor  the  peculiar 
opinions  of  Williams. 

2  Knowles's  Memoir  of  Williams,  74. 


196  THOMAS   DUDLEY  [CH.  xix 

That  refuge  the  Massachusetts  Court  was  anxious  to  keep 
Williams  out  of,  and  therefore  sought  to  send  him  to  Eng 
land,  lest  he  should  from  his  near  vantage  ground  sow  tares' 
and  heresy  in  Massachusetts.  This  adroit  conduct,  if  we  are 
correct,  may  call  forth  hosannas  from  the  friends  of  Williams, 
but  it  was  too  costly  a  price  for  Winthrop  to  pay  for  their 
approval.1 

Winthrop's  loyalty  to  the  Court  is  in  his  Journal  made  to 
appear  firm  and  consistent.2  The  Court  thereupon  sent  an 
officer  to  Salem  to  arrest  Williams,  who  had  escaped  and 
gone  towards  Rhode  Island  with  at  least  the  probable  know 
ledge  of  Wintkropy  who  had  aided  and  abetted  his  escape, 
and  directed  him  to  Rhode  Island,  which  place  he  might 
never  have  known  of,  or  found  at  all,  but  for  Winthrop  and 
Winslow,  and  might  have  been  safely  returned  to  England. 

Williams  says :  "  It  pleased  the  Most  High  to  direct  my 
steps  into  this  bay,  by  the  loving,  private  advice  of  the  ever- 
honored  soul,  Mr.  John  Winthrop,  the  grandfather,  who, 
though  he  were  carried  with  the  stream  for  my  banishment, 
yet  he  tenderly  loved  me  to  his  last  breath."  He  evidently 
understood  Winthrop  to  have  approved  of  his  departure. 

But  Williams  wrote  in  a  letter  to  Major  Mason,  of  Con 
necticut,  which  appears  in  the  Massachusetts  Historical  So 
ciety's  Collections,  i.  275, 3  as  follows  :  "When  I  was  unkindly 
and  unchristianly,  as  I  believed,  driven  from  my  house  and 
land,  and  wife  and  children,  in  the  midst  of  an  New  England 
winter,  now  about  thirty-five  years  past,  at  Salem,  that  ever- 
honored  governor,  Mr.  Winthrop,  privately  wrote  to  me  to 
steer  my  course  to  the  Narragansett  Bay  and  Indians,  for 
many  high  and  heavenly  and  public  ends,  encouraging  me, 
from  the  freeness  of  the  place  from  any  English  claims  or 
patents.  I  took  his  prudent  motion  as  a  hint  and  voice  from 

1  We  have  heretofore  detected  Winthrop  in  the  matter  of  placing  his 
house  in  Cambridge ;  making  promises  both  to  the  citizens  of  Cam 
bridge  and  of  Boston  so  in  conflict  with  each  other  that  faith  had  to  be 
broken  with  one  party  in  order  to  perform  promises  made  to  the  other, 
—  a  course  of  conduct  which  is  not  commendable.    (P.  96,  this  volume.) 

2  Winthrop,  i.  *i;o,  *i;s,  *i;6.  8  Pub.  Narr.  Club,  vi.  335. 


1634-35]  WILLIAMS   GOES   AWAY  197 

God,  and  waiving  all  other  thoughts  and  motions,  I  steered 
my  course  from  Salem." 

A  commission  was  sent  to  Captain  Underhill  to  apprehend 
Williams  at  Salem,  to  have  him  returned  to  England.  Under 
hill  went  to  Williams's  house  in  Salem,  and  found  that  he 
had  been  gone  three  days.  Winthrop  appears  to  have  had 
reasonable  cause  to  believe  that  Williams  had  gone  to  Rhode 
Island  under  the  suggestion  of  his  own  secret  letter  to  him. 
But  he  continues  in  his  Journal  as  follows  :  "But  when  they 
came  to  his  house  they  found  [just  as  though  he  did  not 
know  the  fact  in  advance]  that  he  had  been  gone  three  days 
before,  but  whither  they  could  not  learn."  Can  there  be  a 
reasonable  doubt  that  Winthrop  knew  all  this  time  well 
enough  what  road  Williams  had  taken  under  his  own  per 
sonal  direction  ? 

Blackstone,  who  left  England,  as  he  said,  "to  avoid  the 
Lord  Bishops,  and  Massachusetts  to  be  free  from  the  Lord 
Brethren,"  had  preceded  Williams  to  Rhode  Island,  having 
sold  his  Boston  estate.  Perhaps  Winthrop  thought  Williams 
could  not  do  a  wiser  thing  than  to  follow  Blackstone  into 
Rhode  Island.  It  is  important  to  remember  that  the  suffer 
ings  of  Williams  in  his  immigration  to  Rhode  Island  arose 
from  his  own  choice  of  place.  The  Court  desired  his  com 
fortable  passage  to  England  instead  of  privations  in  the 
wilderness  among  Indians. 

Winthrop  says  further  :  "  It  was  agreed  to  send  him  [Wil 
liams]  to  England  by  a  ship  then  ready  to  depart.  The  rea 
son  was,  because  he  had  drawn  above  twenty  persons  to  his 
opinion,  and  they  were  intended  to  erect  a  plantation  about 
Narragansett  Bay,  from  whence  the  infection  would  easily 
spread  into  these  churches." l  Thus  he,  entertaining,  or 
claiming  to  entertain,  such  sentiments,  secretly  conspired  by 
his  letter  to  spread  this  infection  in  the  churches,  and  to 
thwart  the  very  efforts  being  made  by  his  associates  to  pro 
tect  them.  He  united  with  the  Court,  as  one  who  believed 
the  influence  of  Williams  an  infection,  which  they  had  wisely 
1  Winthrop,  i.  *i;5,  *i;6. 


198  THOMAS   DUDLEY  [CH.  xix 

concluded,  first,  to  quarantine  in  Salem  six  months,  and,  find 
ing  this  useless,  had  resolved  to  send  to  Europe.  Winthrop 
not  only  deceived  the  Court  intentionally  or  otherwise ;  he 
deceived  all  the  world  by  these  remarkable  entries  in  his 
diary,  and  the  truth  would  never  have  been  known  but  for 
the  letter  of  Roger  Williams. 

Nevertheless  there  will  be  found  persons  who  will  approve 
of  his  humane  motive  in  his  concealed  effort  to  aid  Williams. 
But  we  are  unable  to  discover  a  reasonable  excuse  for  him. 

The  satisfaction  that  some  persons  find  in  charging  the 
misfortunes  of  Williams  to  Dudley  and  Haynes  is  indeed 
quite  remarkable.  They  speak  of  "the  mild  and  amiable 
Winthrop,  who  was  the  ablest  as  well  as  the  most  liberal  man 
of  his  age  and  place."  l  Arnold  says  :  "  The  bigoted  Dudley 
had  succeeded  to  the  chief  magistracy  as  the  leader  of  the 
most  restrictive  party  in  Massachusetts.  The  persecution 
of  Williams  is  to  be  attributed  to  a  policy  of  which  Dudley 
and  his  successor  Haynes  were  the  exponents."  2  It  seems 
never  to  have  entered  the  minds  of  these  writers  that  it  was 
the  colony  that  was  being  persecuted,  and  that  Williams 
was  the  intolerant  man.  They  seem  to  forget  that  Williams 
might  be  at  fault  in  part,  as  well  as  the  honest  government 
which  was  calmly  trying  to  maintain  its  existence  in  the  face 
of  its  enemies.  Mr.  Arnold  finds,  on  page  147,  an  opportunity 
to  use  still  more  bitter  language  respecting  Dudley,  although 
when  he  has  once  used  the  word  "  bigoted,"  he  has  nearly 
exhausted  the  ancient  stock  of  vituperation.  That  word 
covers  more  malignity  in  the  opinion  of  some  persons  than 
any  other  epithet  of  its  class ;  it  may,  however,  be  strength 
ened  by  the  addition  of  the  word  "  narrow." 

We  are  thoroughly  convinced  on  the  authorities  that  Wil 
liams  was  induced  to  depart  from  Massachusetts  solely  on 
political  grounds,  simply  on  a  question  of  public  policy,  which 
had  nothing  to  do  with  religious  liberty.  Soul  liberty  was 
an  afterthought  with  him.3 

1  S.  T.  Arnold's  Hist.  R.  I.,  i.  46.  2  Ib.,  i.  46. 

8  Pub.  Narr.  Club,  ii.  4-8 ;  Ellis's  Puritan  Age,  267-291  ;  Palfrey, 


1634-35]          WHY   WILLIAMS   WENT   AWAY  199 

What  had  the  alleged  bigotry  of  Dudley  to  do  with  the 
question  of  his  departure,  or  how  could  it  complicate  it  in 
any  way  ?  Was  it  not  a  departure  from  propriety  and  justice 
to  attribute  to  Dudley  disagreeable  names  which  had  nothing 
to  do  with  the  issue  ?  The  order  for  the  so-called  banish 
ment  1  of  Williams  fortunately  is  matter  of  record,  and  shows 
for  itself  the  whole  sad  story.  It  is  as  follows  :  "  Whereas 
Mr.  Roger  Williams,  one  of  the  elders  of  the  church  of 
Salem,  hath  broached  and  divulged  divers  new  and  danger 
ous  opinions  against  the  authority  of  magistrates,  as  also 
written  letters  of  defamation,  both  of  the  magistrates  and 
churches  here,  and  that  before  any  conviction,  and  yet  main- 
taineth  the  same  without  retraction,  it  is  therefore  ordered, 
that  the  said  Mr.  Williams  shall  depart  out  of  this  jurisdic 
tion  within  six  weeks  now  next  ensuing,  which,  if  he  neglect 
to  perform,  it  shall  be  lawful  for  the  governor  and  two  of 
the  magistrates  to  send  him  to  some  place  out  of  this  juris 
diction,  not  to  return  any  more  without  license  from  the 
Court."  2 

The  government  had  only  two  ways  of  protecting  itself 
completely  against  persons  dangerous  to  society, — those 
were  either  capital  punishment  or  banishment.  They  had 

i.  414;  Dexter' s  As  to  Roger  Williams,  79.  Neither  he,  nor  either  of 
the  thirteen  proprietors  signed  the  famous  compact,  "only  in  civil 
things."  (R.  I.  Col.  Rec.,  i.  14,  20;  Baptist  Quar.,  x.  199;  Pub.  Narr. 
Club,  vi.  5.) 

1  Banishment  in  the  case  of  Williams  is,  if  it  be  proper  to  call  it  that, 
at  least  peculiar.     He  was  sentenced,  September  3,  1635,  "to  depart  out 
of  this  jurisdiction  within  six  weeks  "  (Mass.  Col.  Rec.,  i.  161);  subse 
quently  he  obtained  "  permission  to  remain  until  spring,"  but  would  not 
refrain  from  teaching  in  his  own  house,  contrary  to  the  understanding 
of  the  Court  when  it  granted  the  respite ;  it  therefore  resolved  to  send 
him  to  England,  but  he  escaped  and  went  to  Rhode  Island.     Conse 
quently  the  orders  of  the  Court  were  neither  of  them  ever  executed  upon 
him  by  its  own  officers.    Williams's  journey  to  Rhode  Island  was  not 
in  obedience  to  the  Court,  but  was  exactly  what  they  most  feared.    We 
cannot  state  the  occurrence  more  strongly  for  his  side  than  to  say  that 
he  was  influenced  indirectly  to  exile  himself. 

2  Mass.  Col.  Rec.,  i.  160,  161 ;  Pub.  Narr.  Club,  ii.  8. 


200  THOMAS   DUDLEY  [CH.  xix 

no  prisons,  reformatory  institutions,  or  asylums.  Williams  is 
represented  as  liberty  enlightening  the  world,  and  Dudley  as 
a  restrictive,  soul-bound  bigot.  There  is  no  question  that 
Dudley  was  conspicuous  in  sustaining  a  reliable  government 
in  Massachusetts,  which  won  confidence  everywhere,  drew 
emigrants,  and  made  the  other  New  England  colonies  pos 
sible,  and  has  been  the  generic  model  in  a  large  measure 
both  in  the  construction  of  American  States  and  of  the 
general  government  itself.  Roger  Williams,  whose  greatest 
work  was  the  securing  of  the  parliamentary  charter  of  Rhode 
Island,  —  not  a  satisfactory  one,  —  through  the  friendship  of 
Harry  Vane,  the  Earl  of  Warwick,  and  others,  was  a  kind- 
hearted,  good,  even  great  man,  but  he  could  not  endure  re 
straint  ;  he  would  not  live  even  in  church  limitations  which 
he  had  created  himself.  His  writings,  for  two  centuries  and 
more,  have  greatly  contributed  to  human  freedom.  He  did 
not  reach  the  head  of  government  in  his  own  town  of  Provi 
dence  until  near  the  end  of  the  first  generation,  when  Win- 
throp  and  Dudley  were  gone.  He  held  power  only  two  years 
and  eight  months,  from  September,  1654,  to  May,  1657, 
during  which  the  government  was  feeble  and  unstable.1 

We  freely  grant  that  Williams  was  a  great  agitator,  was 
an  apostle  of  soul  liberty  in  religion  and  politics,  but  not 
the  discoverer  of  that  doctrine,  not  constructive  in  state 
craft.2  At  the  same  time  we  must  claim  with  equal  assur 
ance  that  Dudley,  the  creator,  guardian,  fearless  defender, 
and  executive  of  that  righteous  law  without  which  liberty 

1  He  said  himself  in  a  letter  to  the  General  Court  of  Massachusetts 
after  he  had  been  in  office  one  year,  "  Honored  Sirs,  I  cordially  profess 
it  before  the  Most  High,  that  I  believe  it,  if  not  only  they  (the  families 
at  Pawtuxet  and  Warwick,  under  the  rule  of  Gorton),  but  ourselves  and 
all  the  whole  country,  by  joint  consent,  were  subject  to  your  govern 
ment,  it  might  be  a  rich  mercy."     (Pub.  Narr.  Club,  vi.  205 ;  Knowles's 
Memoir  of  Roger  Williams,  282,  283,  285.) 

2  Rhode  Island  took  from  its  small  beginning  an  impregnable  posi 
tion  in  defense  of  religious  liberty  and  of  civil  freedom.    It  did  not  ori 
ginate  the  doctrines,   it  merely   exemplified  them.     (Crosby's    Hist., 
Appendix  to  vol.  ii.;  Cong,  in  Lit,  by  H.  M.  Dexter,  101-103,  704.) 
Individualism  was  so  intense  there  that  every  element  for  a  while 


1634-35]  LIBERTY    IN   RHODE    ISLAND  201 

cannot  exist,  was  in  character  his  equal,  his  superior  in  ad 
ministrative  power. 

seemed  to  repel  every  other  in  the  community,  each  person  and  planta 
tion  became  a  political  entity,  avoiding  entangling  alliances,  but  the 
terror  of  being  absorbed  either  into  Plymouth  or  Massachusetts  was 
the  leading  centripetal  force  that  finally  established  the  union  into  one 
colony.  (Staples,  Annals  of  Providence,  69,  70,  86,  89,  99,  100, 119, 136.) 
There  was  really  no  stable  government  until  the  royal  charter  of 
1663,  ten  years  after  the  decease  of  Dudley;  he  never  knew  the  colony, 
therefore,  except  in  its  unsettled  beginning.  This  was  the  first  charter 
which  guaranteed  soul  liberty  in  Rhode  Island,  and  was  not  secured  by 
Williams,  but  by  Dr.  John  Clarke,  of  Newport,  who  has  received  the 
distinguished  designation  of  being  called  the  "  Father  of  Rhode 
Island."  This  charter  recites  :  "  Whereas,  we  have  been  informed,  by 
the  humble  petition  of  our  trusty  and  well  beloved  subject  John  Clarke, 
on  behalf  of  Benjamin  Arnold  "  and  others.  This  charter  was  the  Con 
stitution  of  Rhode  Island  until  the  Dorr  war  in  1843.  (Staples,  127.) 
It  was  then  the  oldest  constitutional  charter  in  the  world.  (Arnold's 
Hist,  of  Rhode  Island,  i.  294.)  Williams  was  never  governor  under 
this  charter,  although  he  lived  twenty  years  after  it  was  granted.  It  is 
said,  but  not  proven,  that  Clarke  wrote  those  memorable  words  in  the 
code(R.  I.  Col.  Rec.,  i.  190)  of  laws  under  the  Rhode  Island  Confeder 
acy  of  1647,  when  Williams's  first  charter,  which  met  with  little  success, 
was  adopted  as  the  form  of  government  for  the  colony.  The  words  were  : 
"  And  otherwise  than  thus  what  is  herein  forbidden,  all  men  may  walk 
as  their  consciences  persuade  them,  every  one  in  the  name  of  his 
God.  And  let  the  saints  of  the  Most  High  walk  in  this  colony  with 
out  molestation,  in  the  name  of  Jehovah,  their  God,  for  ever  and  ever." 
Clarke  said  in  addressing  the  king  with  regard  to  his  colony,  "  It  is 
much  on  their  hearts,  if  they  may  be  permitted,  to  hold  forth  a  lively 
experiment,  that  a  most  flourishing  civil  state  may  stand,  and  best  be 
maintained,  and  that  among  our  English  subjects,  with  a  full  liberty  in 
religious  concernments."  (Preston's  Documents,  112;  Baptist  Quar 
terly,  x.  187,  271  ;  Coll.  Mass.  Hist.  Soc.,  4th  series,  ii.  in  ;  Hist.  Bap 
tists,  by  Backus,  i.  280,  349-351.)  Neither  John  Clarke  in  Rhode 
Island,  nor  Thomas  Dudley  in  Massachusetts,  has  yet  received  the 
attention  from  the  public  which  their  important  services  merit.  If 
enmity  against  Massachusetts  and  the  Puritans,  or  sympathy  with  the 
kind-hearted,  magnanimous  Roger  Williams,  be  at  the  bottom  of  that 
public  sentiment  which  appears  on  his  side  of  the  question,  then  Clarke 
has  a  stronger  claim,  for  he  was  sentenced  to  pay  a  fine  or  be  whipped, 
and  was  in  prison  in  Boston  more  than  three  weeks,  bearing  testimony 
to  his  Baptist  faith  in  July  and  August,  1651.  (Ill  Newes  from  New 
England,  Coll.  Mass.  Hist.  Soc.,  2d  series,  ii.  31-37.) 


CHAPTER   XX 

WINTHROP  informs  us  that  "divers  jealousies,  that  had 
been  between  the  magistrates  and  deputies,  were  now  cleared, 
with  full  satisfaction  to  all  parties."  But  a  little  later  he 
says,  "  The  deputies  having  conceived  great  danger  to  our 
state,  in  regard  that  our  magistrates,  for  want  of  positive 
laws,  in  many  cases,  might  proceed  according  to  their  dis 
cretion,  it  was  agreed  that  some  men  should  be  appointed  to 
frame  a  body  of  grounds  of  laws,  in  resemblance  to  a  Magna 
Charta,  which,  being  allowed  by  some  of  the  ministers  and 
the  General  Court,  should  be  received  for  fundamental 
laws."1  The  governor,  deputy  governor,  John  Winthrop, 
and  Thomas  Dudley,  Esq.,  are  deputed  by  the  Court  to 
make  a  draft  of  such  laws  as  they  shall  judge  needful  for  the 
well  ordering  of  this  plantation,  and  to  present  the  same  to 
the  Court.2 

The  people  were  desirous  of  having  established  and  well- 
known  laws,  and  of  avoiding  as  much  as  possible  the  per 
sonal  discretion  of  the  magistrates  in  judicial  decisions. 
They  were  convinced  that  without  law  there  is  no  just 
condemnation,  and  that  every  citizen  ought  to  have  an  oppor 
tunity  to  know  in  advance  the  law  which  furnishes  protec 
tion  to  his  person  and  property,  and  raises  the  presumption 
that  every  man  knows  the  law  "except  the  judges,  who  must 
be  instructed  by  the  lawyers."  And,  further,  that  ignorance 
of  the  law  might  be  no  excuse,  they  saw,  as  we  see,  the 
paramount  importance  of  written  laws. 

This  subject  was  not  suffered  to  rest  long  by  the  people, 
who  had  far  more  solicitude  about  it  than  the  magistrates, 
who  thought  that  laws  were  more  valuable  when  they  grew 
1  Winthrop,  i.  *i6o.  2  Mass.  Col.  Rec.,  i.  147. 


1635-41]  DUDLEY  AND   THE   CODE  203 

one  by  one  out  of  experience  and  the  necessities  of  the  occa 
sion,  than  when  constructed  on  theory  in  advance  of  their 
usefulness. 

The  agitation  went  on,  however,  until  1641,  when  the 
Court  approved  of  the  famous  Body  of  Liberties,  which  is 
the  foundation  of  Massachusetts  legislation  in  construction 
of  statutes. 

The  ministers  were  conspicuous  in  the  creation  of  this 
code,  as  was  natural  and  proper.  If  the  Bible  was  the  chief 
source  to  be  drawn  from,  who  were  more  learned  in  that 
volume  than  the  men  who  had  devoted  their  lives  to  the 
study  of  it  ?  It  is  notable  that  the  greatest  divine  in  the 
colony,  John  Cotton,  tried  his  hand  at  it  and  failed  ;  and 
that  the  distinguished  men  learned  in  English  common  law, 
Dudley,  Winthrop,  and  Bellingham,  were  invited  to  inspect, 
supervise,  and  improve,  but  not  to  construct  the  code  to  be 
prepared.  This  important  work  was  left  to  Cotton  and  to 
Nathaniel  Ward,  of  Ipswich.  Ward  was  first  a  lawyer,  sec 
ond  a  minister,  and  third  a  poet.  He  produced  the  organic 
law,  which  was  amended,  improved,  and  illuminated  by  all 
the  legal  and  clerical  wisdom  of  the  fathers  until  it  was  duly 
perfected. 

The  Puritans  were  almost  as  hostile  to  lawyers,  as  such, 
as  they  were  towards  heretics.  Their  aversion  to  them  was 
as  strong  as  that  of  Peter  the  Great,  who,  seeing  them  in 
England,  said  "  that  he  had  only  one  lawyer  in  his  empire, 
and  that  he  intended  to  hang  him  as  soon  as  he  arrived  in 
Russia."  They  did  not  admit  the  profession  to  be  a  legiti 
mate  business,  as  poor  Lechford  learned  to  his  sorrow.  But 
Ward  had  been  a  lawyer,  and  was  now  first  and  foremost  a 
minister,  and  had  been  so  seasoned  with  the  Bible,  with 
grace,  and  with  poetry,  and  withal  was  so  well  qualified, 
that  the  codification  and  construction  of  the  laws  was  left  in 
his  hands,  and  by  him  completed,  to  the  satisfaction  of  the 
Court.1 

1  William  H.  Whitmore's  Colonial  Laws  of  Mass.,  containing  also, 
The  Body  of  Liberties  of  1641,  5-9,  29-64. 


204  THOMAS   DUDLEY  [CH.  xx 

The  position  of  Dudley  on  nearly  all  of  these  committees 
as  counselor,  from  1635  till  1641,  shows  us  how  important 
his  judgment  and  wisdom  were  deemed  to  be  in  this  begin 
ning  of  the  laws.  He  was  probably  the  oldest  man  in  the 
service,  therefore  the  work  of  compiling  and  research  came 
mostly  to  others  ;  but  in  the  supervision  and  final  determina 
tion  of  the  text  we  may  well  believe,  from  what  we  know  of 
his  judicial  record,  that  no  one  had  a  greater  influence  than 
himself.1  Ward  was  residing  at  Ipswich  during  the  years 
1635  to  1636  inclusive,  and  Dudley  was  no  doubt  a  constant 
attendant  on  his  preaching  at  that  place.  They  are  believed 
to  have  been  sincere  friends,  and  it  is  thought  that  one  of 
the  motives  of  Dudley  in  going  to  reside  at  Ipswich  was  to 
be  near  to  Ward  and  to  attend  his  church. 

The  General  Court  in  1635  enacted,  "that  Mr.  Thomas 
Dudley,  Mr.  Beecher,  Mr.  Waltham,  Mr.  Duncom,  Mr.  Tyl- 
ley,  and  Mr.  Peirce,  these  f  orenamed  gentlemen  or  any  three 
of  them,  whereof  Mr.  Dtidley  always  to  be  one,  shall  have 
power  to  consult,  advise,  and  take  order  for  the  setting  for 
wards  and  after  managing  of  a  fishing  trade,  and  upon  their 
account  all  charges  of  diet  or  otherwise,  at  the  times  of 
their  meeting  to  be  allowed  out  of  the  fishing  stock."2  Our 
attention  is  thus  attracted  again  to  the  business  qualities  of 
Dudley,  thus  recognized  in  the  colony,  capabilities  which  had 
distinguished  him  in  England.  The  fisheries  were  for  many 
years  the  most  important  and  lucrative  interest  in  the  com 
merce  of  Massachusetts  ;  therefore  we  are  not  surprised  that 
the  business  judgment  of  Dudley  was  to  enter  every  trans 
action,  no  matter  who  his  associates  were.  This  is  a  fine 
contemporary  testimony  to  his  capacity,  integrity,  and  to 
the  public  confidence  in  him. 

Fish  at  one  time  in  1631  was  the  only  food  of  the  people.3 
Cape  Ann  was  peopled  by  fishermen.4 

In  the  time  of  great  scarcity  of  food  at  Plymouth,  their 

1  Mass.  Col.  Rec.,  i.  161,  194.  2  Ib.,  i.  158. 

3  Wonder- Working  Providence,  by  Edward  Johnson,  chap.  xxiv. 

4  Ib.,  chap,  xx.,  1641. 


i63S]  DUDLEY  AND   THE   FISHERIES  205 

little  boat  saved  them.  "  It  helped  them  to  improve  the  net, 
wherewith  they  took  a  multitude  of  bass,  which  was  their 
livelihood  all  that  summer"  of  I622.1  Winthrop  says,  "An 
order  was  made,  that  all  stocks  employed  in  fishing  should 
be  free  from  public  charge  for  seven  years."  Fishermen 
were  free  from  military  duty.  He  informs  us  further  how 
lucrative  the  fisheries  were  in  1639  :  "  Here  was  such  store 
of  exceedingly  large  and  fat  mackerel  upon  our  coasts  this 
season,  as  was  a  great  benefit  to  all  our  plantation.  Some 
one  boat  with  three  men  would  take,  in  a  week,  ten  hogs 
heads,  which  was  sold  at  Connecticut  for  £$  I2s.  the  hogs 
head."  2  This  industry  led  to  shipbuilding.3 

The  whale  and  cod  fishing  in  Massachusetts,  we  are  told, 
amounted  in  1750  to  $1,250,000  per  year.  The  importance 
of  the  codfish  to  Massachusetts  in  its  early  history  is  suffi 
cient  reason  for  the  emblem  now  suspended  in  the  popular 
hall  of  the  legislature  of  that  State,  that  the  representatives 
of  the  people,  when  they  assemble  to  make  laws,  may  not  be 
unmindful  of  the  source  of  prosperity  and  even  of  suste 
nance  of  their  predecessors,4  just  as  the  lord  chancellor  of 
England  is  required  to  sit  on  the  wool-sack,  to  remind  the 
noble  lords  that  wool  was  once  the  staple  production  of  the 
kingdom. 

These  circumstances  assist  us  to  realize  what  an  impor 
tant  figure  in  the  business  circles  of  the  Bay  the  excellent 
citizen  was  whose  life  work  claims  our  attention. 

It  taxes  severely  our  courage  to  question  the  opinions  of 
Mr.  Savage,  but  we  are  quite  convinced  that  he  misappre 
hended  the  intent  of  the  complaint  against  Winthrop,  by 
Vane,  Peters,  Hooker,  and  others,  set  forth  in  Winthrop.5 
If  we  are  correct,  he  not  only  went  astray  here,  but  he  has 
caused  many  rejoicing  adherents  to  the  same  love  of  Win 
throp,  and  aversion  to  Dudley,  to  fall  into  the  like  error  with 
himself. 

1  Hubbard,  80.  *  Winthrop's  Journal,  i.  *3O7,  308. 

8  Palf.  Hist.  N.  E.,  i.  55.          4  Memorial  Hist,  of  Boston,  47,  note. 
6  Vol.  i.  *I77-*I79,  note  i. 


206  THOMAS    DUDLEY  [CH.  xx 

It  was  made  to  appear  at  the  meeting,  it  seems,  that  there 
was  a  Dudley  faction  and  a  Winthrop  faction.  Dudley  had 
been  governor  in  1634,  and  had,  with  the  energy  of  a  busi 
ness  man,  trained  in  the  regular  and  correct  methods  of 
Judge  Nichols  at  Westminster/and  also  with  the  strict  dis 
cipline  of  a  soldier,  set  an  example  in  the  method  of  doing 
the  public  business  which  many  people  approved,  and  it 
became  the  subject  of  talk  and  of  comparison  not  favorable 
to  the  administration  of  Winthrop.  The  Cambridge  faction, 
with  Haynes,  Hooker,  and  other  leading  men  in  it,  desired 
more  dignity  and  less  looseness  in  the  management  of  affairs, 
according  to  approved  precedents  in  well-organized  govern 
ments.  The  proceedings  at  this  meeting  had  no  connection 
with  soul  liberty,  or  with  Winthrop' s  being  lax  or  harsh 
with  tender  consciences  or  deluded  fanatics.  It  pertained 
strictly  to  general  rules  and  orders,  regardless  of  the  religion, 
politics,  or  parties  which  were  to  guide  the  conduct  of  the 
officers  of  court  in  all  cases.  Its  trend  was  neither  on  the 
one  hand  in  the  direction  of  bigotry,  nor  on  the  other  of 
latitudinarianism.  It  was  absolutely  neutral  in  religion.  All 
of  which  we  think  will  clearly  appear  from  a  careful  perusal 
of  the  fifteen  rules  of  court.1  Savage  says,  "The  general 
result  of  this  conference  must,  I  think,  be  regretted.  When 
the  administration  of  Winthrop  was  impeached  by  Governor 
Haynes  for  too  great  lenity,  it  seems  natural  that  such  severe 
tempers  as  Dudley,  Vane,  and  Peters  should  unite  in  the 
attack."  He  succeeds  in  introducing  the  "severe  temper" 
of  Dudley.  Mr.  Savage  could  not  easily  pass  Dudley  in  any 
event  without  striking  him,  neither  would  he  fail  to  empha 
size  the  meekness  and  gentleness  of  Winthrop.  Yet  the 
words  of  Dudley  on  that  occasion  were  gentle,  loving,  excel 
lent.  He  said,  in  the  words  of  Winthrop's  account,  "  Though 
there  had  been  formerly  some  differences  and  breaches  be 
tween  them,  yet  they  had  been  healed,  and  for  his  part  he 
was  not  willing  to  renew  them  again  ;  and  so  left  it  to  others 
to  utter  their  own  complaints."  He  was  out  of  it,  he  was 
1  Winthrop,  i.  *i;8,  *i;9. 


i63S]     DUDLEY'S    INFLUENCE   OVER   WINTHROP         207 

not  the  man  to  ask  others  to  do  his  own  disagreeable  duties, 
he  made  no  complaint,  and  must  not  be  held  as  attempting 
to  improve  Winthrop's  business  habits.  There  have  been 
persons  who  dated  Winthrop's  downfall  into  bigotry  from 
the  influence  of  this  meeting  and  who  charged  the  responsi 
bility  of  his  declension  upon  the  innocent  Dudley.  Thus 
Dudley  is  made  to  bear  the  sins  of  both,  and  to  go  ever 
more  double  freighted  with  opprobrium,  in  the  estimation  of 
people  who  seek  to  visit  the  sins  of  Winthrop  upon  others. 
It  would  be  as  reasonable  to  charge  the  Rules  and  Orders 
of  the  Massachusetts  Legislature  of  1899  with  persecution 
in  1635  and  1636,  as  the  Rules  of  Practice  and  Procedure 
agreed  upon  at  the  meeting  in  1635.  This  affair  and  its  con 
sequences  broadens,  however,  in  the  mind  of  Mr.  Savage, 
until  he  includes  the  dreadful  clergy  as  particeps  criminis, 
with  all  the  concentrated  bigotry  believed  to  have  been  in 
them.  He  regards  Vane,  Peters,  and  Dudley  only  as  simple 
tools  of  the  shepherds.  Subsequent  writers,  as  we  have 
said,  have  freely  taught  that  Winthrop  took  at  this  fatal 
juncture  a  proclivity  towards  bigotry  totally  unlike  anything 
ever  observed  in  him  in  England,  and  that  the  change  is  due 
to  Dudley.  So  little  is  known  of  Winthrop's  life  in  England 
that  such  statements  do  not  amount  to  much.  There  is  a 
difficulty  about  these  allegations  that  Dudley  was  constantly 
leading  Winthrop  from  sweetness  and  light  to  bigotry  and 
darkness.  If  they  were  true  they  would  manifest  a  docility 
and  want  of  backbone  in  Winthrop  which  would  be  degrad 
ing  and  in  no  way  creditable  to  him.  It  is  claimed  that 
Winthrop  did  not  recover  from  this  evil  influence  until  near 
the  close  of  life,  when  the  two  "  upon  whom  the  weight  of 
affairs  did  lie " 1  were  for  the  last  time  brought  together. 
Winthrop  is  declared  to  have  passed  out  of  life  a  changed 
man,  having  broken  forth  into  clear  light  just  before  his 
departure,  while  Dudley  continued  in  the  darkness  of  bigotry 
and  in  the  gall  of  bitterness. 

We  are  told  that  "  during  this  last  illness  Winthrop  was 
1  Winthrop,  i.  *ijj. 


208  THOMAS   DUDLEY  [CH.  xx 

waited  upon  by  Thomas  Dudley,  the  deputy  governor,  and 
pressed  to  sign  an  order  for  the  banishment  of  a  person  who 
was  deemed  heterodox,  but  that  he  refused,  saying  that  he 
had  done  too  much  of  that  work  already."  l  This  intensely 
dramatic  scene  has  no  foundation  whatever,  so  far  as  we  can 
discover.  There  is  no  known  witness  of  the  alleged  event ; 
it  is  corroborated  by  no  testimony  whatever.  George  Bishop, 
in  "New  England  Judged,"  page  226,  made  a  charge  similar 
to  this  respecting  Marmaduke  Matthews,  who  is  said  to  have 
been  the  subject  of  this  traditional  story,  which  story  in  any 
event  could  not  possibly  have  been  true.  Matthews,  at  the 
time  of  the  death  of  Winthrop,  was  regarded  as  a  godly  min 
ister  at  Hull  and  later  at  Maiden.  His  name  first  appears 
in  the  Colonial  Record,  May,  1649,  u'i-  I53-  But  Winthrop 
died  March  26,  1 649.2 

The  authority  for  this  false  tradition  usually  relied  on  is 
Hutchinson,  i.  151.  But  it  appears  first  of  all,  as  we  have 
said,  in  "New  England  Judged,"  by  George  Bishop,  pub 
lished  in  1 66 1,  at  London,  more  than  a  century  before  the 
publication  of  Hutchinson's  history.  Mr.  J.  A.  Doyle,  as 
usual,  seems  to  relish  this  reflection  -on  Dudley.  He  says  : 
"  The  tradition  is  so  unlike  what  a  New  Englander  would 
have  invented  for  the  glorification  of  his  countryman  that  I 
am  inclined  to  believe  it." 3  Doubtless  his  inclination  to 
believe  disagreeable  traditions  respecting  Dudley  will  con 
tinue,  although  they  emanate  from  George  Bishop,  of  Bristol, 
England,  and  not  from  "New  Englanders." 

If,  however,  this  story  were  strictly  true,  such  official 
action  of  the  deputy  governor  would  not  have  been  personal, 
he  would  be  there  by  the  order  of  the  Court,  in  the  discharge 
of  his  sworn  duty.  If  Winthrop  was  incapacitated  and  phy 
sically  unable  to  perform  the  duties  of  his  office,  for  that 
reason  the  deputy  governor  ought  not  to  be  held  up  to  the 

1  R.  C.  Winthrop's  Life  and  Letters  of  John  Winthrop,  ii.  393. 
a  See  Pool's  Introduction,  Wonder- Working  Providence,  ex.,  note  2; 
Winthrop,  i.  *273. 
8  English  in  America,  i.  395,  note. 


1635]         DUDLEY  AND   WINTHROP   FOREMOST  209 

execration  of  the  world  in  comparison  with  the  compas 
sionate  Winthrop,  who,  in  health  and  vigor,  having  no  veto 
power,  would  not  have  hesitated  to  execute  the  order  of  the 
Court.  The  comparisons  between  these  noble  men,  who  in 
most  things  were  of  one  mind  and  of  one  heart,  which  are 
intended  to  injure  the  character  of  Dudley,  are  constructed, 
like  this  one,  out  of  nebulous  material  and  disappear  upon 
examination.  Massachusetts  ought,  with  a  grateful  sense 
of  obligation,  to  see  to  it  that  tardy  justice  is  done  to  the 
memory  of  all  her  heroic  founders.  It  is  too  much  the 
modern  habit  to  traduce  them,  to  judge  their  acts  by  the 
standards  of  other  centuries,  or  by  the  ideals  of  pamphlet 
writers  who  knew  nothing  of  their  responsibilities,  nor  could 
themselves  for  a  week  have  enforced  their  dreams  of  impos 
sible  things. 

One  memorable  feature  of  the  meeting,  described  in  the 
early  part  of  this  chapter,  was  the  fact  that  Winthrop  had 
never  discovered  "  any  breach  between  his  brother  Dudley 
and  himself,  .  .  .  neither  did  he  suspect  any  alienation  of 
affection  in  him."  Nor  was  there  any,  and  whoever  seeks 
to  establish  the  reverse  is  a  public  enemy. 

Another  still  more  important  fact  was  revealed  on  this 
occasion,  and  cannot  be  too  much  considered.  It  is  that 
this  group  of  the  foremost  men  among  the  founders  —  two  of 
them  (Vane  and  Peters)  conspicuous  afterwards  in  England, 
both  indeed  martyrs  of  liberty  in  the  struggles  of  the  Eng 
lish  commonwealth,  while  one  (Haynes)  was  then  governor 
of  Massachusetts,  and  was  to  be  the  first  governor  of  Con 
necticut,  busy  actors  in  the  very  scenes  themselves  —  then 
left  on  record  "  that  Dudley  and  Winthrop  were  those  upon 
whom  the  weight  of  the  affairs  did  lie." l  Memorable  words, 
worthy  of  inscription  on  a  tablet  at  the  Capitol  in  Wash 
ington,  beside  the  monument  of  the  illustrious  Winthrop, 
the  noble  representative  of  Massachusetts  character  and 
greatness,  to  keep  in  the  memory  of  men,  "while  rivers 
run  and  grass  grows  green,"  these  brothers,  who  were  first 
1  Winthrop,  i.  *i;7. 


210  THOMAS   DUDLEY  [CH.  xx 

and  foremost  in  laying  the  foundations  of  the  model  com 
monwealth. 

There  was,  as  we  have  noticed,  at  Cambridge,  in  1635 
and  1636,  great  discontent  among  the  people.  The  entire 
church  of  Thomas  Hooker  was,  with  himself,  determined  to 
emigrate.  Connecticut,  Ipswich,  and  other  places  were  con 
sidered  as  places  of  residence.  The  reason  given  by  these 
people  was  that  they  had  not  sufficient  land.  "  Besides  the 
need  for  fresh  soil,  it  was  thought  that  the  personal  ambition 
of  Hooker,  the  pastor  of  Cambridge,  made  him  eager  for 
greater  freedom  and  authority  than  he  could  enjoy  in  Mas 
sachusetts."  One  New  England  chronicler  indeed  tells  us 
that  "  two  such  eminent  stars,  such  as  were  Mr.  Cotton  and 
Mr.  Hooker,  both  of  the  first  magnitude,  though  differing 
influence,  could  not  well  continue  in  one  and  the  same 
orb."  1 

The  pilgrimage  of  these  people  to  Connecticut  is  a  very 
attractive  subject,  but  we  cannot  enter  upon  it.  They  ruled 
by  magistrates  during  the  first  three  years,  and  in  1639 
formed  their  government.  Connecticut  and  Rhode  Island 
were  both  overflows  from  Massachusetts.  John  Haynes,  the 
first  governor  of  Connecticut,  as  we  have  seen,  had  been  the 
friend,  neighbor  in  Cambridge,  and  successor  in  the  guber 
natorial  office  of  Dudley,  in  Massachusetts,  in  1635.  We 
have  already  observed  how  he  held  Winthrop  strictly  to  ac 
count  in  office  while  he  himself  resided  in  Cambridge. 

Dudley,  who  did  not  differ  materially  in  his  ideas  of 
church,  state,  or  toleration  from  these  associates,  was  relied 
upon  when  emergencies  arose  in  any  direction.  He  wrote 
no  tracts  explaining  the  motives  of  his  actions,  but  Massa 
chusetts  is  the  answer  to  all  detractors ;  she  is  the  result  of 
their  combined  labors;  "she  needs  no  encomiums ;"  twenty- 
three  years  of  his  greatest  and  best  work  are  in  the  earliest 
elements  of  her  construction. 
/  Dudley  caught  with  his  friends  also  the  spirit  of  wander- 

1  Hubbard,  1 73 ;  J.  A.  Doyle's  English  in  America,  i.  207 ;  George 
L.  Walker's  Thomas  Hooker,  90. 


1635]  DUDLEY'S   RESIDENCE   IN    IPSWICH  211 

ing.  He  could  not  find  it  in  his  heart  to  go  so  far  away 
as  Connecticut ;  he  was  too  deeply  interested  in  the  holy 
experiment  of  liberty  in  Boston,  and  was  under  obligation  to 
stand  firmly  by  Massachusetts.1 

Dudley,  in  1635,  sold  his  home  in  Cambridge  to  Roger 
Harlakenden,  who  had  come  with  the  Rev.  Mr.  Shepard, 
the  new  minister,  who  took  the  place  of  Hooker  in  August 
of  that  year.2  He  went  with  his  son-in-law,  Bradstreet,  as 
he  had  gone  with  him  to  Cambridge  in  1631,  also  with  his 
son-in-law,  Major-General  Daniel  Denison,  and  with  his  old 
est  son,  Samuel  Dudley,  to  Ipswich,  in  1635.  Other  citizens 
of  Cambridge  went  with  them.  Dudley  remained  there  only 
four  years,  and  then  removed  to  Roxbury,  where  he  would 
be  nearer  to  the  seat  of  government,  and  there  resided  dur 
ing  the  remainder  of  his  life.  This  last  change  of  home 
took  place  the  year  before  he  was  again  governor,  in  1640, 
which  political  office  may  have  influenced  somewhat  his 
removal  to  Roxbury. 

We  find  an  account  of  some  of  these  people  in  "The  Ham- 
matt  Papers  concerning  the  Early  Inhabitants  of  Ipswich, 
published  by  Augustine  Caldwell  and  Arthur  Dodge,  Ips 
wich,  1 88 1."  There  is  an  account  of  Governor  Dudley  on 
pages  80  and  82  of  No.  2,  from  which  we  take  the  follow 
ing :  "  Granted  to  Thomas  Dudley,  Esq.,  in  October,  1635, 
about  nine  acres  of  land  between  Goodman  Cross,  on  the 
west,  and  a  lot  intended  to  Mr.  Bradstreet  on  the  east,  upon 
which  Mr.  Dudley  hath  built  a  house.  .  .  .  All  which  the 
said  Thomas  Dudley,  Esq.,  hath  sold  to  Mr.  Hubbard.3  The 
spot  where  Mr.  Dudley's  house  probably  was  placed  must 
have  been  one  of  the  most  desirable  situations  for  a  gentle 
man's  residence  which  could  be  found  in  this  region.  It 
had  a  copious  spring  of  pure  water,  which  gave  name  to  the 
street.  It  was  sheltered  on  the  north  and  the  east  by  the 

1  Proc.  Mass.  Hist.  Soc.,  Jan.  1870,  219. 

2  Young's  Chron.,  517,  note. 

8  Whether  the  following  applies  to  the  home  of  Governor  Dudley, 
or  his  son,  is  not  quite  certain. 


212  THOMAS   DUDLEY  [CH.  xx 

hill,  and  open  towards  the  south  and  southwest  on  an  uncom 
monly  beautiful  landscape." 

Three  hundred  pounds  were  levied,  March  3,  1636,  out  of 
the  several  plantations  for  public  use,  and  from  the  assess 
ments  we  learn  that  Cambridge,  at  the  time  that  Dudley 
left  it,  was  the  most  wealthy  in  the  colony,  and  that  of  the 
thirteen  towns  Ipswich  was  the  sixth  in  respect  to  pro 
perty.1 

It  was  ordered,  March  3,  1636,  that  the  General  Court 
from  time  to  time,  as  occasion  shall  require,  "  shall  elect  a 
certain  number  of  magistrates  for  the  term  of  their  lives,  as 
a  standing  council,  not  to  be  removed  but  upon  due  con 
viction  of  crime,  insufficiency,  or  for  some  other  weighty 
cause ;  the  governor  for  the  time  being  to  be  always  presi 
dent  of  this  council,  and  to  have  such  further  power  out  of 
court  as  the  General  Court  shall,  from  time  to  time  .  .  . 
endue  them  withal."  It  is  thought  that  this  council  was 
created  to  induce  the  nobility  and  eminent  people  of  Eng 
land  to  come  to  America,  and  was  designed  to  open  the  way 
for  the  enjoyment  of  titles  of  rank  and  nobility  in  this  coun 
try.  This  was  repugnant  to  the  sentiments  of  the  great  body 
of  middle-class  people  who  had  settled  on  these  shores. 
The  Constitution  of  the  United  States,  in  the  same  spirit,  a 
century  and  a  half  later,  gives  expression  to  the  democratic 
republican  genius  of  the  American  people,  and  allows  neither 
titles  of  rank  nor  of  nobility  in  the  republic.  This  council 
had  no  public  importance  after  three  years,  and  its  power 
constantly  dwindled  under  the  blows  of  the  people,  jealous 
and  watchful  over  its  progress  from  the  beginning.  It  bears 
quite  largely  the  impress  of  the  Rev.  John  Cotton  and  John 
Winthrop.  When,  in  1634,  Dudley  succeeded  Winthrop  as 
governor,  Cotton,  a  strong  partisan  of  Winthrop,  preached, 
at  the  General  Court,  "  that  a  magistrate  ought  not  to  be 
turned  into  the  condition  of  a  private  man  without  just  cause, 
and  to  be  publicly  convict,  no  more  than  the  magistrates 
may  not  turn  a  private  man  out  of  his  freehold,  etc.,  without 
1  Mass.  Col.  Rec.,  i.  165,  166. 


1636-39]  THE   STANDING   COUNCIL  213 

like  public  trial,"  etc.1  The  council  for  life  is  more  august, 
but  it  is  of  the  same  political  sort.  It  was  that  conflict  be 
tween  authority  and  the  people  in  which  our  institutions 
were  moulded  and  formed  on  both  sides  of  the  sea.  The 
account  of  this  council  given  by  Winthrop  is  very  instruc 
tive,  not  only  respecting  its  rise  but  its  fall  as  well.2  It  was 
probably  Cotton's  address  which,  by  its  anti- American  senti 
ments,  aroused  the  people  still  more  against  the  Standing 
Council ;  however  that  may  be,  they  proceeded  without  more 
ado  to  wrest  from  it  every  semblance  of  authority  or  power 
in  i639.3  There  were  never  but  four  members  of  this  coun 
cil  :  Vane,  Winthrop,  Dudley,  and  Endicott* 

Richard  Saltonstall,  a  former  neighbor  of  Dudley  at  Ips 
wich,  even  wrote  a  book  to  reveal  "  wherein  the  institution 
of  the  Standing  Council  was  pretended  to  be  a  sinful  innova 
tion."  5  Dudley,  into  whose  safe  keeping  this  book  had  been 
placed,  had  found  some  very  unsound,  reproachful,  and  dan 
gerous  passages  in  it,  and  he  proceeded  at  once  to  disarm 
them  of  their  power  to  do  harm,  for  which  service  he  was 
exceedingly  well  qualified.  The  sympathy  of  Dudley  was 
in  general  on  the  side  of  the  people,  and  we  are  sure  that 
neither  he  nor  Winthrop  sought  the  power  and  authority 
which  had  been  so  signally  bestowed  on  them,  because  they 
were  ex-governors  par  excellence.  Yet  they  being  made 
members  of  the  Standing  Council,  perhaps  to  make  place  for 
Vane,  especially  by  the  political  efforts  of  Cotton  first,  and 
the  elders  next,  were  not  to  be  traduced  and  misrepresented 
by  the  ignorant  and  wrong-headed,  not  while  Dudley  had  the 
facts  in  his  memory  and  keeping.  We  could  well  and  heartily 
wish  that  he  had  been  also  alive  in  these  recent  centuries  to 
vindicate  public  services  against  the  detraction  of  modern 
writers  and  annotators.  Some  persons  who  have  gone  in  and 
out  before  their  fellow  creatures  would,  we  are  persuaded,  be 
astonished  at  their  own  opinions  in  the  light  of  honest  truth. 
In  this  connection  it  goes  to  one's  heart  to  read  his  thoughts 

1  Winthrop,  i.  *I32.          2  Ib.,  i.  *i8s.          «  Ib.,  i,  301,  302. 
4  Ib.,  i.  *302.  5  Ib.,  ii.  *64,  *6$. 


214  THOMAS   DUDLEY  [CH.  xx 

while  living,  expressed  in  his  letter  to  the  noble  Countess  of 
Lincoln.  "  But  we  do  desire,  and  cannot  but  hope,  that  wise 
and  impartial  men  will  at  length  consider  that  such  malcon 
tents  have  ever  pursued  this  manner  of  casting  dirt,  to  make 
others  seem  as  foul  as  themselves,  and  that  our  godly  friends, 
to  whom  we  have  been  known,  will  not  easily  believe  that 
we  are  so  soon  turned  from  the  profession  we  so  long  have 
made  in  our  native  country."  1  This  quotation  indicates  how 
important  his  early  life  in  England,  to  the  age  of  fifty-four 
years,  is  as  a  key  to  his  subsequent  life  in  America,  always 
to  be  considered  in  connection  with  the  records  of  Massa 
chusetts  during  his  period,  and  with  the  books  and  tracts 
composed  by  his  rivals  or  hostile  contemporaries  and  all 
subsequent  detractors. 

All  these  controversies  about  the  Standing  Council  and 
other  matters  had  not  in  the  least  diminished  the  stable 
popularity  of  Dudley  with  the  people,  which  he  had  won  by 
faithful,  self-sacrificing  service  from  the  beginning  to  the 
end,  and  thus  when  his  usual  gubernatorial  year  approached 
in  1640,  he  was  elevated  into  the  exalted  station  for  the  sec 
ond  time.  It  ought  not  to  be  overlooked,  however,  that  the 
election  of  Winthrop  and  Dudley  by  the  General  Court  of 
the  colony  to  the  Standing  Council,  set  them  apart  as  the 
two  most  eminent  persons  at  that  time  in  Massachusetts, 
with  the  possible  exception  of  Governor  Vane.  This  honor 
crowned  six  years  of  faithful  service,  in  which  they  had 
attained  to  the  fullest  and  highest  confidence  of  the  people. 
Winthrop  was  certainly  able,  wise,  and  amiable ;  Dudley  was 
rugged,  just,  courageous,  untiring  in  energy.  He  had  little 
patience  with  windy  discussions  and  arrogant  nonsense, 
which  characteristic  is  admirable,  worthy  of  his  dignity  and 
position.  He  was  preeminently  a  man  of  action,  and  be 
longs  to  that  class  of  men  in  history  who  with  sincere  con 
victions,  clear  heads,  and  iron  nerves  have  achieved  the  best 
things  in  this  world.  These  men  ought  to  be  judged  by  the 
average  public  sentiment  of  their  period.  We  freely  admit 
1  Young's  Chron.,  331. 


1636]         EXTENSION    OF   LOCAL  GOVERNMENT  215 

that  Dudley  entertained  a  childlike  belief  in  special  provi 
dences  which  would  not  in  general  be  acceptable  to  this 
generation,  yet  perhaps  in  the  course  of  time  and  the  pro 
gress  of  human  mutations  his  ideas  may  be  in  fashion  again; 
and  even  now,  we  know  that  there  are  multitudes  of  excel 
lent  people  who  are  in  perfect  accord  with  his  opinions  in 
these  matters. 

It  was  ordered  furthermore,  on  March  3,  1636,  "that  here 
after  there  shall  be  only  two  General  Courts  kept  in  a  year, 
viz.,  that  in  the  third  month,  called  May,  for  elections  and 
other  affairs,  and  the  other  the  first  Wednesday  in  October, 
for  making  laws  and  other  public  occasions  of  the  common 
wealth."  This  system  was  established,  no  doubt,  by  reason 
of  the  new  county  courts  created  this  very  session.  This 
had  in  it  the  further  extension  of  local  government  from  the 
capital  to  the  counties,  and  the  distribution  of  justice  as 
nearly  as  possible  to  the  places  where  persons  are  to  be  tried 
by  their  peers.  These  excellent  provisions  came  from  the 
method  and  example  found  in  the  mother  country. 


CHAPTER   XXI 

THE  May  election  in  the  year  1636  was  unique  and  of 
great  historic  interest.  Sir  Henry  Vane,  whose  father,  Sir 
Henry  Vane,  the  elder,  had  filled  some  of  the  highest  state 
offices  during  the  reigns  of  James  I.  and  Charles  L,  arrived 
in  Boston  the  previous  year.  He  was  a  man  of  education, 
although  he  left  the  university  before  completing  his  course 
there,  and  going  abroad  reinforced  his  Puritanism  at  Geneva, 
one  of  the  exhaustless  sources  whence  these  doctrines  were 
to  be  imbibed.  He  was  everywhere  welcomed  in  the  colony 
by  reason  of  his  distinguished  family  and  personal  attain 
ments.  He  was  at  once  the  subject  of  all  praise,  and  so 
excited  were  the  people  with  their  newly  discovered  fran 
chise,  and  so  anxious  to  have  a  change  and  break  the  mo 
notony  of  things,  that,  regardless  of  all  other  considerations, 
they  instantly  set  aside  the  old  founders,  comforting  them 
meanwhile  with  a  councilship  for  life;  and  believing  that 
nothing  in  this  wilderness  could  be  too  great  or  too  excel 
lent  for  this  youth  born  in  the  purple,  elevated  him,  after  a 
sojourn  here  of  six  months,  at  the  age  of  twenty-four  years, 
to  the  chief  magistracy  of  Massachusetts. 

The  people  soon  found,  however,  cause  to  regret  their  rash 
and  inconsiderate  action.  Winthrop,  whether  with  a  tinge  of 
envy  does  not  appear,  relates  that,  "  because  Governor  Vane 
was  son  and  heir  to  a  privy  councilor  in  England,  the  ships 
congratulated  his  election  with  a  volley  of  great  shot."1 
This  is  said  to  have  bee,n  the  first  instance  of  such  great 
honor  to  a  governor-elect. 

It  must  have  been  a  disheartening  scene  to  those  of  the 
colony  who  remained  behind,  when  one  hundred  of  their  best 
1  Winthrop,  i.  187. 


1636]  PEQUOT   WAR  217 

people,  with  one  hundred  and  sixty  cattle,  began  their  journey 
to  Connecticut  May  31,  one  week  after  this  election.  We 
have  already  considered,  without  much  success,  some  of  the 
causes  of  this  democratic  secession.1  It  was  probably  made 
in  search  for  more  space  to  expand  in,  for  liberty  in  general. 
But  great  men  are  the  wealth  of  any  community,  and  two 
of  them,  Hooker  and  Haynes,  departed  at  the  head  of  this 
emigration.  Dudley  probably  felt  this  separation  more  than 
any  one  else,  since  they  had  been  his  associates,  neighbors, 
and  political  friends,  and  now  he  was  left  to  the  tender 
mercy  of  the  triumphant  Boston  faction.  The  question  soon 
arose  whether  the  government  in  Boston  would  set  up  the 
colors  on  the  fort,  and  thereby  evince  their  loyalty  to  the 
mother  country,  or  whether  they  would  decline  to  do  it,  be 
cause  the  royal  cross  of  St.  George  within  it  was  believed 
by  many  Puritans  to  be  an  emblem  of  Roman  idolatry,  for 
which  reason  Endicott  had  cut  the  cross  out  of  the  ensign 
in  Salem.  It  is  interesting  to  note  in  the  writings  of  Rev. 
Mr.  Hooker  that  he  did  not  approve  of  the  cutting  the  cross 
out  of  the  English  ensign  by  Governor  Endicott.  He  there 
fore  was  in  accord  with  Governor  Vane  and  Governor  Dud 
ley.2 

The  ensign  was  duly  set  upon  the  fort  by  the  order  of 
Governor  Vane,  sustained  only  by  Governor  Dudley.  This 
act  shows  in  a  striking  manner  the  quality  of  Dudley.  He 
was  large  enough  to  make  the  needful  distinction  in  the 
midst  of  the  prejudice  about  him,  and  his  life  abounds  in 
just  such  breezy  exhibitions  of  obedience  to  conviction. 

The  Indians  killed  John  Oldham,  of  Watertown,  Mass., 
and  brought  on  the  dreadful  Pequot  war,  which  resulted  next 
year  almost  in  annihilation  of  the  tribe,  perhaps  the  strongest 
and  bravest  in  New  England.  This  war  was  precipitated 

1  Mr.  George  E.  Ellis  says  the  Antinomian  troubles  in  Massachusetts 
were  the  cause.     Sparks's  Am.  Biog. ;  Rev.  R.  Stansby  to  Rev.  J.  Wil 
son,  Mass.  Hist.  Coll.,  4th  series,  vii.  10,  n;  Walker's  Life  of  Hooker, 
88-90;  Hubbard,  165,  166. 

2  Walker's  Life  of  Hooker,  81,  82. 


218  THOMAS   DUDLEY  [CH,  xxi 

upon  the  little  colony  of  Connecticut  mostly,  which  had  less 
than  two  hundred  men,  who  had  been  there  less  than  a  year, 
while  the  Pequots  had  one  thousand  men.  But  the  hero  of  the 
colony,  Captain  John  Mason,  closed  the  war  in  one  battle. 
The  number  of  men  to  be  furnished  for  this  war  by  the  towns 
of  Massachusetts  was  one  hundred  and  sixty,  of  which  Bos 
ton  had  the  largest  number,  while  Cambridge,  reduced  by 
the  emigration  to  Connecticut,  had  now  less  than  one  half  as 
many  in  her  quota.  The  most  serious  question  which  arose 
during  the  administration  of  Governor  Vane  was  the  Anti- 
nomian  controversy.  Winthrop  relates  that  one  "  Mrs. 
Hutchinson,  a  member  of  the  church  of  Boston,  a  woman 
of  a  ready  wit  and  bold  spirit,  brought  over  with  her  two 
dangerous  errors :  i.  That  the  person  of  the  Holy  Ghost 
dwells  in  a  justified  person.  2.  That  no  sanctification  can 
help  to  evidence  to  us  our  justification.  From  these  two 
grew  many  branches  ;  as  I.  Our  union  with  the  Holy  Ghost, 
so  as  a  Christian  remains  dead  to  every  spiritual  action,  and 
hath  no  gifts  nor  graces,  other  than  such  as  are  in  hypo 
crites,  nor  any  other  sanctification  than  the  Holy  Ghost 
himself."  * 

Ann  Hutchinson  was  a  very  gifted  woman,  who  in  1636 
was  at  the  head  of  a  woman's  association  or  club,  where  the 
sermons  of  several  of  the  leading  ministers  of  the  colony 
were  reviewed  by  her  with  considerable  critical  severity,  the 
substance  of  the  teaching  of  this  club  being  that  the  minis 
ters  in  general,  except  Cotton  and  Wheelwright,  were  blind 
leaders,  holding  views  and  teaching  doctrines  which  might 
have  been  quite  correct  and  proper  in  the  Garden  of  Eden, 
when  and  where  our  first  parents  were  under  a  covenant  of 
obedience,  but  not  so  now  in  the  last  days  of  the  new  dis 
pensation  ;  we  have  now  instead  a  covenant  of  grace  and 
faith,  and  may  safely  do  what  to  us  seemeth  good  without 
regard  to  law.2 

The  magistrates  of  Massachusetts  permitted  this  woman 

1  Winthrop,  i.  200. 

2  Mather's  Magnalia,  ii.  bk.  vii.  chap.  iii.  §§  8,  9,  p.  447. 


1636]  ANTINOMIANISM  219 

with  her  associates l  to  remain  in  the  colony  until  1638,  and 
tolerated  her  teaching  and  influence  before  they  banished 
her.  Many  writers  do  not  seem  to  realize  the  anxiety  of  the 
Puritans  both  in  England  and  America,  at  this  time  and 
before,  respecting  the  doctrines  of  the  Antinomians,  En 
thusiasts,  Familists,  and  German  Anabaptists,  which  they 
believed  upon  examination  to  be  contained  in  the  teachings  of 
Ann  Hutchinson  and  of  the  Woman's  Club.  How  intense 
their  solicitude  was  is  manifest  in  the  writings  of  nearly 
every  Puritan  of  importance  in  the  colony  whose  works  are 
extant.2 

There  certainly  was  great  reason  to  fear  those  persons 
who  claimed  to  act  under  the  authority  of  personal  visions 
from  Heaven,  like  the  fanatical  John  of  Leyden,  not  that 
they  had  yet  attempted  to  legalize  polygamy  and  unbridled 
profligacy,  as  had  been  done  in  the  previous  century  at 
Miinster  and  other  places.  The  doctrine  of  justification  by 
faith  and  the  right  of  private  judgment,  so  dear  to  Protest 
ants,  were  interpreted  by  John  of  Leyden  to  mean  that 
whatever  a  saint  thought  or  did,  was  the  will  of  God  wrought 
by  him  and  in  him ;  the  moral  law,  the  social  law,  the  civil 
law,  all  laws,  were  indeed  abrogated,  and  each  individual 
was  a  law  unto  himself,  each  had  a  special  dispensation  from 
Heaven  to  commit  sin  without  restraint,  for  in  them  it  was 
not  sin,  because  they  were  not  "  under  the  law,  but  under 
grace."  3 

The  Puritans  in  England,  as  we  have  mentioned  before, 
were  moreover  seriously  tainted  with  this  subtle,  dangerous 
heresy.  The  watchful,  clear-sighted,  brave  founders  of  Massa 
chusetts  saw  this  plague-spot,  full  of  deadly  influences,  which 

1  Mass.  Hist.  Coll.,  4th  series,  vii.  100,  HI,  note. 

2  Mather's  Magnalia,  ii.  bk.  vii.  chap.  iv.  §  7,  p.  477 ;  John  Winthrop 
and  T.  Welde's  Short  Story  of  the  Rise,  Reign,  and  Ruin  of  the  Anti 
nomians,  Familists,  and  Libertines  that  infected  the  Church  of  New 
England,  40;  Hutchinson,  ii.  App.,  513,  514,  516;  Ann  Hutchinson, 
Sparks's  American  Biog.,  zd  series,  vi.  199. 

8  See  Anabaptists,  Cyclo.  of  Bib.  Theolog.  and  Ecc.  Lit.,  by  McClii* 
tock  and  Strong ;  also  Encyc.  Britannica,  i. 


220  THOMAS   DUDLEY  [CH.  xxi 

had  ruined  the  Christian  life  at  Miinster,1  extending  from 
Mrs.  Hutchinson  and  Boston  over  their  fair  commonwealth, 
to  pollute  and  destroy  their  cherished  institutions.  They 
determined  finally,  after  two  years,  that  they  must  join  in 
the  issue,  and  contend  for  self-preservation,  for  social  exist 
ence,  and  for  religious  liberty.  Dudley  in  after  years  left 
his  testimony  that  they  were  too  long  in  arriving  at  this  de 
termination  for  the  public  good.  Their  solicitude  was  more, 
no  doubt,  as  to  the  future  fruits  and  influence  of  this  false 
doctrine  than  to  the  evils  springing  from  it  in  their  genera 
tion.  Yet  it  is  important  to  remember  in  this  connection 
that  Captain  Underhill  and  the  Rev.  Mr.  Knollys,2  disciples 

1  Their  fear  of  the  German  heresy  is  seen  in  the  act  of  disarming. 
(Mass.  Col.  Rec.,  i.  211.) 

2  Since  writing  the  above,  our  attention  has  been  called  to  the  subse 
quently  excellent,  useful,  and  eminent  career  of  Knollys  in  England. 
We  have  noted   the   attempt  in   certain   directions  to   discredit  the 
accounts  of  Winthrop,  Hubbard,  and  Belknap  respecting  his  alleged 
conduct  in  Dover,  N.  H.,  in  1641.     Savage  in  his  notes  sustains  Win 
throp.     Hubbard  was  contemporary  and  was  then  twenty  years  old. 
Hugh  Peters  says  in  a  letter  to  Winthrop  in  1640,  Mass.  Hist.  Coll.  (4th 
series,  vi.  106),  speaking  of  the  troubles  at  Dover:  "I  conceive  that 
two  or  three  men  sent  over  may  do  much  good  at  this  conflux  of  things." 
He  says  further:  "  I  think  this  work  falls  naturally  under  the  care  of 
the  council."     Winthrop  informs  us  that  the  next  year,  in  1641,  "The 
governor  and  council  considered  of  their  petition,  and  gave  commission 
to  Mr.  Bradstreet,  one  of  our  magistrates,  Mr.  Peter  and  Mr.  Dalton, 
two  of  our  elders,  to  go  thither  and  to  endeavor  to  reconcile  them,  and 
if  they  could  not  effect  that,  then  to  inquire  how  things  stood  and  to 
certify  us,"  etc. 

The  letter  of  Peters  quoted  above,  which  has  been  said  to  sustain  the 
reputation  of  Knollys,  was  a  year  before  the  discovery  of  his  error,  if 
we  are  correct.  He  confessed  in  open  church.  The  commissioners  of 
Massachusetts  investigated.  A  suit  for  slander  instituted  by  Knollys 
is  used  to  defend  him,  but  he  did  not  have  the  courage  to  prosecute  it, 
and  at  the  best  it  is  of  doubtful  importance.  Winthrop  had  the  best 
means  of  information  from  the  commission  and  otherwise.  He  is  very 
explicit  in  the  details,  and  if  he  is  discredited  in  this,  a  matter  of  such 
public  celebrity,  we  must  be  in  doubt  respecting  his  general  trustworthi 
ness.  "  The  tempter  hath  a  snare  for  all."  Knollys  had  experience, 
repented,  lived  a  noble  and  useful  life,  and,  like  St.  Augustine  and  a 


1636]  ANTINOMIANISM  221 

and  followers  of  Ann  Hutchinson,  put  in  practice  at  once 
the  same  disgusting  and  repulsive  conduct  which  distin 
guished  the  fanatics  of  Munster.1  Winthrop  said,  "What 
may  they  breed  more  if  they  be  let  alone  ?  "  2 

It  was  also  Winthrop  and  T.  Welde  —  and  there  are  no 
stronger  authorities  —  who  said,  in  "  A  Short  Story  of  the 
Rise,  Reign,  and  Ruin  of  the  Antinomians,"  etc.,  pages  42, 
43  :  "  So  it  hath  been  in  the  churches  of  Rome,  and  others, 
and  so  we  may  justly  fear  in  these  churches  in  New  Eng 
land,  however  that  many  that  now  adhere  to  these  familistical 
opinions  are  indeed  truly  godly,  and  (no  doubt)  shall  perse 
vere  to  the  end,  yet  the  next  generation  which  shall  be 
trained  up  under  such  doctrines,  will  be  in  great  danger  to 
prove  plain  familists  and  schismatics.  This  discovery  of  a 
new  rule  of  practice  by  immediate  revelations,  and  the  con 
sideration  of  such  dangerous  consequences  which  have  and 
might  follow  thereof,  occasioned  the  Court  to  disarm  all  such 
of  that  party,  as  had  their  hands  to  the  petition." 

Winthrop  said  at  another  time,  "  But  God  will  teach  them 
by  immediate  revelations,  and  this  hath  been  the  ground  of 
all  these  tumults  and  troubles,  and  I  would  that  those  were 
all  cut  off  from  us  that  trouble  us,  for  this  is  the  thing  that 
hath  been  the  root  of  all  the  mischief."  The  following 
extract  from  the  account  of  the  trial  of  Mrs.  Hutchinson 
presents  Governor  Winthrop  as  of  the  same  opinion  expressed 
by  him  before. 

"  COURT.    We  all  consent  with  you. 

"  GOVERNOR  WINTHROP.  Ey,  it  is  the  most  desperate  en 
thusiasm  in  the  world."  3 

"  I  am  persuaded  that  the  revelation  she  brings  forth  is 
delusion."  4 

host  besides,  is  entitled  to  our  admiration  and  confidence.  "  The  end 
crowns  the  work."  (Hubbard,  Mass.  Hist.  Coll.,  2d  series,  vi.  363,  364; 
N.E.Reg,  xix.  131;  Christian  Review,  xxiii.  438;  Cong.  Quarterly, 
xiii.  38.) 

1  Winthrop,  ii.  27-29 ;  Mather's  Magnalia,  ii.  477. 

2  Hutchinson,  ii.  App.,  514.  8  Ib.,  ii.  App.,  513,  514. 
*  Ib.,  i.  App.,  515. 


222  THOMAS   DUDLEY  [CH.  xxi 

The  following  passage,  believed  to  be  the  composition  of 
Winthrop,  is  highly  instructive  as  to  his  opinion  :  "  So  that 
the  Court  did  clearly  discern,  where  the  fountain  was  of  all 
our  distempers,  and  the  tragedy  of  Munster  (to  such  as  had 
read  it)  gave  just  occasion  to  fear  the  danger  we  were  in, 
seeing  (by  the  judgment  of  Luther  writing  of  those  trou 
blous  times)  we  had  not  to  do  with  so  simple  a  devil,  as 
managed  that  business,  and  therefore  he  had  the  less  fear  of 
him :  but  Satan  seemed  to  have  commission  now  to  use  his 
utmost  cunning  to  undermine  the  kingdom  of  Christ  here 
(as  the  same  Luther  foretold  he  would  do,  when  he  should 
enterprise  any  such  innovation  under  the  clear  light  of  the 
Gospel),  so  as  the  light  has  not  been  known  in  former  ages, 
that  so  many  wise,  sober,  and  well-grounded  Christians, 
should  so  suddenly  be  seduced  by  the  means  of  a  woman,  to 
stick  so  fast  to  her,  even  in  some  things,  therein  the  whole 
current  of  Scripture  goeth  against  them,  and  that  notwith 
standing  her  opinions  and  practice  have  been  so  gross  in 
some  particulars,  as  their  knowledge  and  sincerity  would  not 
suffer  them  to  approve,  yet  such  interest  hath  she  gotten 
in  their  hearts  as  -they  seek  cloaks  to  cover  the  nakedness 
of  such  deformities." l 

The  vigorous  position  taken  by  the  United  Colonies  of 
New  England  in  1644,  in  contending  against  this  Antino- 
mian  heresy,  removes  this  issue  out  of  a  mere  local  struggle 
confined  to  Massachusetts,  and  reveals  a  general  solicitude 
respecting  the  danger  from  it,  which  is  entitled  to  full  con 
sideration,  and  cannot  be  lightly  passed  over.  We  quote 
as  follows  from  the  record:  "That  Anibaptism,  Familism, 
Antinomianism,  and  generally  all  errors  of  like  nature  which 
oppose  and  undermine  and  slight  either  the  Scriptures,  the 
Sabbath,  or  other  ordinances  of  God,  and  bring  in  and  cry 
up  unwarrantable  revelations,  inventions  of  men,  or  any  car 
nal  liberty,  under  a  deceitful  color  of  liberty  of  conscience, 

1  A  Short  Story  of  the  Rise,  Reign,  and  Ruin  of  the  Antinomians, 
Familists,  and  Libertines,  etc.,  1644,  40. 


1636]  ANTINOMIANISM  223 

may  be  seasonably  and  duly  suppressed,  though  they  wish  as 
much  forbearance  and  respect  may  be  had  of  tender  con 
science  seeking  light  as  may  stand  with  the  purity  of  reli 
gion  and  the  peace  of  the  churches."  J 

The  writers  who  take  the  side  of  Mrs.  Hutchinson,  and 
regard  her  as  the  brilliant  forerunner  of  the  present  accom 
plished  woman,  social  and  political  leader,  are  inclined  to  the 
opinion  that  Winthrop  had  little  sympathy  with  her  prosecu 
tion,  and  to  allege  that  Dudley  was  the  bigot  who  sought  her 
destruction.  But  in  the  record  of  her  trial  in  Hutchinson's 
"  History  of  Massachusetts  "  (which  account  is  thought  to 
have  been  constructed  in  her  interest  and  to  misrepresent 
the  Court),  Winthrop  took  positive  action,  presided  at  the 
trial,  did  most  of  the  summing  up  of  the  evidence,  formu 
lated  the  judgment  of  the  Court,  and  was  more  conspicuous 
than  any  one  else,  and  if  the  doings  of  that  Court  are  to  be 
condemned,  he  cannot  escape  his  full  share  of  the  responsi 
bility.  The  quotations,  however,  already  made,  exhibit  him 
in  the  strongest  light  against  Mrs.  Hutchinson,  and  leave  no 
room  for  doubt.  There  is  sufficient  evidence  that  the  fathers 
of  Massachusetts,  with  great  forbearance  and  long  delay, 
sought  to  deal  justly  with  Mrs.  Hutchinson.  They  were  at 
that  time  under  unusual  embarrassments,  for  on  one  side  they 
were  preparing  for  the  dreadful  Pequot  war,  while  on  the 
other  they  were  constantly  expecting  a  crushing  blow  from 
the  hostile  and  vindictive  Archbishop  Laud,  which  might 
annihilate  their  holy  experiment  of  government  in  America. 
They  are  surely  entitled  to  our  sympathy  in  their  afflictions. 
They  had  faults,  they  were  human  and  without  large  experi 
ence  in  affairs  of  statecraft,  but  their  record  is  secure  in  its 
essential  features,  and  demands  neither  defense  nor  apology. 
Their  love  of  justice  is  notable  in  the  very  beginning  of  their 
investigation  into  this  heresy.  They  first  called  a  synod  at 
Cambridge,  which  met  August  30,  1637,  presided  over  by  the 
very  distinguished  Rev.  Thomas  Hooker,  then  of  Hartford, 

1  Plymouth  Col.  Rec.,  ix.  81,  82. 


224  THOMAS   DUDLEY  [CH.  xxi 

Conn.,  and  the  Rev.  Peter  Bulkley,  of  Concord,  Mass.  The 
purpose  of  this  synod  was  not  to  try  persons  for  heresy,  but 
to  examine  and  test  by  the  standard  of  the  Scriptures,  doc 
trines  believed  to  have  been  disseminated  or  approved  by 
Mrs.  Hutchinson  or  her  club. 

This  synod  l  discovered  eighty-two  well-recognized  errors 
afloat  in  the  community,  chargeable  in  general  to  Mrs.  Hutch 
inson  or  her  association.  The  synod  attached  to  each  of 
these  errors  a  passage  of  Scripture,  believed  to  be  a  sover 
eign  antidote  for  the  poison  contained  in  it.  For  Cotton 
Mather  asserts  with  assurance  that  they  "  did  unto  reason 
able  men  immediately  smite  the  error  under  the  fifth  rib." 
These  eighty-two  errors,  with  the  Scripture  so  attached,  are 
to  be  found  in  "  A  Short  Story  of  the  Rise,  Reign,  and  Ruin 
of  the  Antinomians,"  etc. 

The  citizens  of  Boston  cannot  forget  that  she  commended 
herself  to  Harry  Vane,  the  governor,  the  Rev.  John  Cotton, 
to  Rev.  Mr.  Wheelwright,  and  to  the  church  and  town  of 
Boston  in  general.  Cotton  and  Wheelwright  both  recanted 
soon,2  saw  their  errors,  and  were  restored  to  the  faith  and  to 
their  brethren.  The  great  name  of  the  overrated  Governor 
Vane  has  done  very  much  to  support  Mrs.  Hutchinson  in  the 
public  estimation,  and  to  create  a  strong  aversion  towards 
the  government  of  Massachusetts  which  banished  her.  This 
opinion  seems  to  demand  that  we  should  scrutinize  with  care 
the  character  and  peculiar  qualities  of  mind  of  Governor 
Vane.  Investigation  will  remove,  we  believe,  all  surprise 
respecting  the  ascendency  of  Mrs.  Hutchinson  over  him,  for 
he  was  constitutionally  susceptible  to  her  Antinomian  ideas 
and  visions.  His  biographer,  James  K.  Hosmer,  says  "  that 
he  was  after  a  strange  fashion  a  dreamer,  devoted,  when  he 
could  find  leisure  for  it,  to  rhapsody  and  abstruse  discussion, 
unintelligible  to  the  men  of  his  time,  and  the  despair  of  those 
of  the  present  day  who  seek  to  follow  him."  Thomas  Car- 

1  The  leaders  were  not  ignorant  peasants,  but  university  men. 

2  Mass.  Col.  Rec.,  ii.  67;  Winthrop,  ii.  162.     This  has  been  denied 
(Backus,  i.  131),  but  the  authority  seems  to  sustain  the  text. 


1636]  HARVARD   COLLEGE   FOUNDED  225 

lyle  has  set  forth  this  fatal  weakness  in  his  character  in  his 
usual  vigorous  manner.1 

Clarendon  informs  us  that  "  Vane  was  not  to  be  described 
by  any  character  of  religion,  in  which  he  had  swallowed  some 
of  the  fancies  of  every  sect."  2  Hutchinson  pronounces  Vane 
to  have  been  "obstinate  and  self-sufficient,"  and  says  further 
that  "  he  craftily  made  use  of  the  party  which  maintained 
these  peculiar  opinions  in  religion,  to  bring  him  into  civil 
power  and  authority,  and  draw  the  affections  of  the  people 
from  those  who  were  their  leaders  into  the  wilderness."3 
Gardiner  has  given  to  us  the  conclusion  of  the  whole  matter 
in  the  following  :  "  Vane  coming  to  Massachusetts  at  a  time 
of  unexampled  difficulty,  found  that  Ann  Hutchinson,  volu 
ble,  ready,  earnest,  uttered  doctrines  which  attracted  strongly 
his  mystical  temperament.  The  absolute  character  of  his 
intellect  made  him  careless  about  expediency."  4  It  has  been 
said  that  "  the  departure  of  Vane  was  hailed  as  an  inexpres 
sible  relief  "  to  the  government  of  Massachusetts. 

The  founding  of  Harvard  College  is  almost  the  only  con 
structive  work  in  legislation  during  his  term  of  office,  but  it 
was  enough  to  redeem  the  time  lost  in  controversy.  It  was 
perhaps  the  most  important  single  event  which  transpired  in 
the  commonwealth  during  the  century. 

"  The  Court  agreed  to  give  four  hundred  pounds  towards  a 
school  or  college,  whereof  two  hundred  pounds  to  be  paid  the 
next  year  and  two  hundred  pounds  when  the  work  is  finished, 
and  the  next  Court  to  appoint  where  and  what  building."  The 
next  year  "the  college  is  ordered  to  be  at  Newtown."  5 

The  departure  of  Governor  Vane  insured  the  downfall  of 
the  party  of  Mrs.  Hutchinson.  It  is  proper  to  mention  in 
conclusion  that  Clarendon  says  "  that  the  reason  and  under 
standing  of  Vane  in  all  matters  without  the  verge  of  religion 
was  inferior  to  that  of  few  men."  The  world  will  never  for- 

1  Cromwell's  Letters  and  Speeches,  ii.  part  7  of  Int. ;  The  Rump, 
227;  also  Letter  188,  250. 

2  Clarendon,  vi.  2957.  8  Hutchinson,  i.  73. 

4  Hist.  Eng.,  viii.  174.  6  Mass.  Col.  Rec.,  i.  183,  208. 


226  THOMAS   DUDLEY  [CH.  xxi 

get  that  he  was  one  of  the  greatest  of  the  democratic  repub 
lican  martyrs,  who  received  in  his  own  person  the  vengeance 
of  the  Stuarts,  and  fell  in  the  struggle  for  human  freedom. 

We  have  extensively  considered  this  Antinomian  question, 
perhaps  occupying  too  much  space  with  it,  because  Governor 
Thomas  Dudley  has  received  a  large  share  of  censure  in 
modern  times,  bestowed  upon  the  magistrates  who  banished 
Mrs.  Hutchinson.  We  have  believed  that  justice  could  not 
be  done  to  him  without  reviving  thoughtfully  the  influences 
and  public  sentiments  which  prevailed  before  and  at  the 
time  when  the  Court  took  action  in  this  case.  We  also 
think  that  he  has  been  made  unduly  prominent  in  this  affair 
by  the  misfortune  of  having  left  some  lines  of  poetry  in 
his  pocket,  found  after  his  decease,  which  have  been  much 
quoted  on  the  supposition  that  they  contain  the  concentrated 
bigotry  of  the  seventeenth  century. 

Dudley  was  deputy  governor  at  the  time,  and  was  no 
doubt,  next  to  Winthrop,  the  most  influential  in  the  over 
throw  of  Mrs.  Hutchinson..  He  said  at  her  trial,  "  These  dis 
turbances  that  have  come  among  the  Germans  [meaning  espe 
cially  at  Miinster]  have  been  all  grounded  upon  revelations, 
and  so  they  have  vented  them,  have  stirred  up  their  hearers 
to  take  up  arms  against  their  prince,  and  to  cut  the  throats 
of  one  another,  and  these  have  been  the  fruits  of  them."  1 

1  Hutchinson,  ii.  App.,  514.  Dangerous,  extreme,  and  fanatical  pre 
tensions  of  special  endowment  and  guidance  of  the  Holy  Spirit  are  now 
and  have  been  made  for  centuries  with  blasphemous  presumption.  They 
are  neither  new  nor  strange,  although  some  persons  have  regarded  Ann 
Hutchinson  as  unique  in  history.  The  danger  which  menaces  a  popu 
lation  of  seventy  millions  from  a  few  scattered  irrational  enthusiasts  is 
insignificant;  it  was  otherwise  in  Boston  in  1636. 

Mr.  George  E.  Ellis,  who  wrote  the  Life  of  Ann  Hutchinson,  and  has 
given  the  Antinomians  the  benefit  of  able  and  faithful  service,  says, 
"  The  struggle  was  one  of  the  series  of  strifes  and  assaults  which  aimed 
at  the  very  life  of  the  Biblical  commonwealth."  He  also  remarked, 
"  But  the  Antinomian  controversy  was  most  threatening  of  convulsion, 
disaster,  and  of  a  final  overwhelming  catastrophe."  He  says  further, 
"  The  reason  given  for  this  civil  interposition,  though  consistent  with 
the  theocratic  principle,  was  that  Antinomian  doctrines  threatened  civil 


1636]  DUDLEY'S   POETRY   HOSTILE  227 

There  are  two  or  more  versions  of  Dudley's  poetry,  but 
the  following  is  believed  to  be  the  most  approved  :  — 

41  Let  men  of  God  in  courts  and  churches  watch 
O'er  such  as  do  a  toleration  hatch, 
Lest  that  ill  egg  bring  forth  a  cockatrice, 
To  poison  all  with  heresy  and  vice. 
If  men  be  left,  and  otherwise  combine, 
My  epitaph  's,  I  di'd  no  libertine." 

This  poetry  seems  to  have  been  the  vehicle  which  has 
preserved  the  intense  feelings  of  that  epoch,  and  transmitted 
them,  antiquated  indeed,  to  our  own  times,  and  for  these 
reasons  we  ought  to  read  between  the  lines,  and  catch  the 
real  thought  intended  then  to  be  expressed  by  it,  and  not  to 
translate  a  new  meaning  into  it. 

The  usual  method  in  the  treatment  of  this  poetry  is  to 
begin  by  depreciating  the  quality  of  it,  which  we  at  pre 
sent  cannot  find  time  to  defend.  It  is  enough  that  Mather 
thought  it  to  be  creditable.  Next,  an  important  conces 
sion  is  made  as  to  the  substance  and  truthfulness  of  the 
matter  contained  in  it,  to  the  effect  that  it  well  expresses 
the  bigotry  of  the  age  and  neighborhood.  This  may  cer 
tainly  be  considered  exalted  praise,  because  there  is  a  vast 
amount  of  alleged  poetry  in  the  world  which  does  not  ex 
press  anything.  Dudley  may  not  have  "  married  immortal 
verse  to  tune  "  with  the  beauty  and  perfection  of  the  great 
poets,  but  he  certainly  has  had  the  exceptional  fortune  to 
have  gathered  into  a  single  stanza,  if  these  persons  are  cor 
rect,  the  sentiments  of  his  associates,  to  have  transmitted 
them  to  the  coming  generations,  and  to  have  been  more 
quoted  (which  is  said  to  be  an  indication  of  genius  in  poetry) 
than  any  contemporary ;  and  it  is  probable  that  he  will  con- 
order  and  pure  morals.  This  justification  was  not  wholly  unsupported 
by  thoroughly  sincere  reasons  and  apprehensions  incident  to  the  time 
and  circumstances  of  the  strife."  He  says  also,  "  The  immoralities  and 
abominations  of  fanatical  Antinomians  in  Germany  in  the  previous  cen 
tury  had  not  passed  from  memory,  npr  from  living  reference  to  them." 
(The  Puritan  Age  in  Massachusetts,  359,  360.) 


228  THOMAS   DUDLEY  [CH.  xxj 

tinue  to  receive  the  same  deference  so  long  as  the  history  of 
Massachusetts  shall  claim  the  attention  of  mankind. 

But  unfortunately  this  composition  has  cruelly  recoiled  on 
Dudley,  and  has  stimulated  modern  writers  to  hold  him  up 
as  the  chief  bigot  of  his  age.  Every  mention  of  him  recalls 
to  them  his  deathless  lines. 

The  first  difficulty  about  the  stanza  is  that  there  does  not 
appear  to  be  any  real  evidence  that  he  wrote  it.  Mather 
says,  to  be  sure,  that  they  were  "  lines  of  his  own  compos 
ing."  But  the  general  contemporary  testimony  is  only  that 
they  were  found  in  his  pocket.  They  have,  however,  been 
so  long  attributed  to  him  that  we  may  as  well  consider  them 
his  own. 

This  poetry  must  be  read  in  the  light  of  the  Antinomian 
controversy.  Every  line  of  it  is  instinct  with  the  issues  of 
that  struggle.  How  clearly  the  prevailing  dread  of  anar 
chistic  revelations,  making  every  one  a  law  unto  himself, 
appears  in  the  "  ill  egg,"  which  suggests  a  life  of  poison  not 
yet  in  existence !  It  was  the  fruit,  the  influence,  of  his  age 
in  disseminating  this  error,  which  the  writer  feared  would 
blight  their  holy  experiment,  the  hope  of  the  world. 

Toleration,  which  ought  sometimes  to  be  translated  indif 
ference  about  religion,  is  a  very  popular  word.  It  appeared 
in  the  above  lines  and  seemed  to  be  a  prayer  to  Heaven,  the 
last  appeal  of  a  Massachusetts  man  who  had  "fought  a 
good  fight  and  kept  the  faith,"  to  save  the  commonwealth 
from  the  Antinomian  rocks  on  which  a  sort  of  Christian 
democracy  was  shattered  at  Miinster. 

The  word  "libertine"  creates  a  disagreeable  sensation, 
because  it  is  conceived  to  include  the  modern  liberal  thinker. 
Its  meaning  was  not  that  when  used  by  Dudley :  it  was  to 
identify  the  membership  of  one  of  an  order  of  heretics  of 
the  Munster  type.  Webster  defines  the  word  as  "  one  of  a 
sect  of  Anabaptists,  in  the  fifteenth  and  early  part  of  the 
sixteenth  century,  who  rejected  many  of  the  customs  and 
decencies  of  life,  and  advocated  a  community  of  goods  and 
of  women."  We  ourselves  in  recent  times  took  Dudley's 


1653]  TOLERATION   AND   PERSECUTION  229 

side  of  this  same  question,  and  approved  of  the  dispersion  of 
the  Mormons,  and  we  would  no  more  have  "  combined  "  with 
libertines  than  Dudley  himself  would  have  done  it. 

Mr.  Savage  appears  very  anxious  to  relieve  Governor 
Winthrop  from  the  disgrace  of  having  used  the  term  Anti- 
nomian,  which  seems  to  be  particularly  offensive  to  him.1 
But  Winthrop,  unfortunately  for  this  position,  applied  the 
more  disreputable  term  to  them,  viz.,  "  Familistical  per 
sons."2  The  book,  "A  Short  Story  of  the  Rise,  Reign, 
and  Ruin  of  the  Antinomians,"  said  to  have  been  written  by 
Winthrop  and  T.  Welde,3  contains  all  the  names  ever  applied 
to  these  people.  Certainly  there  is  no  "  exquisite  rancor  of 
theological  hatred  "  in  the  use  of  terms  which  express  the 
exact  historic  doctrines  professed  and  held  by  people.  Such 
names  are  given  to  designate,  not  to  defame.  The  word 
"libertine,"  in  the  lines  quoted,  characterizes  that  class  of 
heretics  called  also  Antinomians  and  Familists,  which  at 
one  time  was  supposed  to  threaten  the  complete  destruction 
of  the  Massachusetts  Colony. 

We  affirm  that  we  do  not  persecute,  and  we  wonder  how 
those  good  people  of  the  seventeenth  century  could  have 
thought  themselves  consistent  with  their  claims  to  have  emi 
grated  in  search  for  liberty.  The  boundary  line  between 
what  may  safely  be  tolerated  and  what  may  not,  changes 
with  different  periods.  We  now  persecute  people,  not  in  the 
same  manner  but  with  the  same  spirit,  using  social  ostra 
cism  ;  we  "  boycott "  them,  we  keep  them  out  of  our  clan, 
or  club,  or  church  ;  we  make  them  feel,  wherever  we  meet 
them,  that  we  do  not  approve  of  them  socially,  religiously, 
or  politically.  The  spirit  in  us  is  the  same  that  has  always 
been  active  in  our  race ;  we  are  neither  much  -wiser  nor  better 
than  our  fathers.  There  are  now  many  dogmas  in  science 
and  religion  which  are  fighting  their  way  against  public  opin 
ion,  and  meeting  opprobrium  which,  to  the  sensitive  natures 

1  Winthrop,  i.  215,  note  I. 

2  Ib.,  i.  256. 

8  Ib.,  i.  249,  note ;  Dexter's  Cong,  in  Lit.,  App.,  50,  No.  972. 


23o  THOMAS   DUDLEY  [CH.  xxi 

of  their  sincere  advocates,  may  be  as  oppressive  and  painful 
to  endure  as  the  ruder  censures  of  two  centuries  ago. 

Thomas  Dudley  and  his  associates  deemed  it  their  duty 
to  the  church  and  state  to  extinguish  what  they  thought  to 
be  dangerous,  as  we  now  consider  ourselves  under  obligation 
to  crush  polygamy,  vivisection,  the  liquor  traffic,  or  the  dis 
tribution  of  indecent  literature.  Our  methods  are  different ; 
our  motives  are  the  same.  We  seek,  as  they  sought,  to  keep 
poison  from  the  people  by  the  power  of  the  state.  "  The 
rigid  uniformity  of  belief  enforced  in  Geneva,  or  in  Massa^ 
chusetts,  was  enforced,  partly  at  least,  on  political  grounds, 
to  insure  a  sufficient  amount  of  cohesion  in  small  commu 
nities  struggling  for  their  liberty.  Such  communities  cannot 
afford  to  tolerate  those  who  only  ask  for  toleration  till  they 
are  strong  enough  to  seize  the  government  and  refuse  tolera 
tion  to  others." 1 

Sometimes  toleration,  which  is  only  in  any  instance  endur 
ing  what  we  do  not  approve,  marks  the  decay  of  faith  and 
the  substitution  of  indifference  or  insensibility  to  matters 
once  esteemed  vital.  It  is  quite  possible  to  permit  liberty 
of  opinion,  of  the  press,  or  in  religion,  when  the  government 
is  firmly  established.  "  Only  those  who  feel  themselves 
secure  can  afford  to  tolerate  a  tax  upon  themselves,  and 
toleration  is  then  their  wisest  course."  The  Supreme  Court, 
in  the  case  of  Reynolds  v.  United  States,  declared  that 
"  Congress  was  deprived  by  the  Constitution  of  all  legisla 
tive  power  over  mere  opinion,  but  was  left  free  to  reach 
actions  which  were  in  violation  of  social  duties  and  subver 
sive  of  good  order."  Opinions  charged  with  "  soul  liberty  " 
are  safe  under  this  decision,  but  immediately  when  the 
thought  appears  in  action,  if  the  legislature  in  the  exercise 
of  its  discretion  deems  the  action  subversive  of  good  order, 
it  may  freely  exercise  the  power  of  repression. 

If  the  people  have  revelations  like  Mrs.  Hutchinson,  and 
keep  them  to  themselves,  the  Constitution  and  the  court 
will  protect  them ;  if,  on  the  other  hand,  they  express  them 
1  Ritchie's  Natural  Rights,  i.  178. 


1653]      DUDLEY   ENTITLED   TO   COMMENDATION        231 

in  action,  and  such  action  is  by  the  legislature  deemed  sub 
versive  of  good  order,  they  are  liable  to  suppression,  or,  as 
they  may  call  it,  persecution. 

This  was  the  exact  ground  of  the  Puritans.  They  did  not, 
like  the  Church  of  Rome,  seek  to  force  their  opinions  into 
•the  minds  of  people  by  violent  measures,  nor  to  punish  per 
sons  for  their  belief,  but  only  for  teaching  or  practicing 
heretical  opinions.  The  Supreme  Court,  therefore,  in  our 
own  time  and  the  Puritans  of  the  seventeenth  century  seem 
to  be  in  essential  accord  and  agreement  in  their  principles. 

No  person  can  have  candidly  examined  these  various  re 
cords  without  deep  sympathy  for  Thomas  Dudley.  "  Let 
not  the  land  once  proud  of  him  insult  him  now."  Burke 
once  said,  "  Respecting  your  forefathers,  you  would  have 
been  taught  to  respect  yourselves."  He  worshiped  the  one 
true  God,  as  we  worship  Him,  in  a  liberal,  faithful,  consist 
ent  obedience,  which  is  worthy  of  modern  imitation.  He 
was  as  free  from  superstition  as  the  most  intelligent  of  his 
age.  He  could  not  have  been  narrow-minded  in  a  general 
way,  and  at  the  same  time  "wise  and  just,  ...  in  books 
a  prodigal,  they  say,  a  living  Cyclopaedia."  We  have  already 
observed  that  both  in  England  and  America  he  sought  the 
foremost  scholars  for  his  teachers  and  companions,  men 
educated  in  all  the  wisdom  of  the  great  English  universities. 
We  shall  have  occasion  to  note  later  his  active  part  in  estab 
lishing  Harvard  College,  an  institution  of  liberal  learning. 
These  and  many  other  labors  and  characteristics  of  Dudley 
are  convincing  evidence  that  his  mind  was  open  to  truth 
from  all  quarters.  He  was  a  great  reader  of  books.  But 
perhaps  his  political  record  is  as  convincing  as  anything 
which  we  possess  as  to  his  breadth  and  scope  of  thought. 
For  we  must  consider  him  as  one  of  the  wise,  political  mas 
ter-builders  ;  he  had  a  share  in  all  the  progressive  work  in 
the  construction  of  the  Puritan  commonwealth  in  Massachu 
setts,  which  has  not  ceased  to  be  the  admiration  of  the 
world.  "  We  know  .  .  .  what  workmen  wrought  thy  ribs 
of  steel."  If  he  was  liberal  in  this  work,  it  goes  far  to  show 


232  THOMAS   DUDLEY  [CH.  xxi 

that  he  was  as  broad  all  around  as  his  associates.  Men  are 
seldom  wise  and  liberal  in  state  matters  who  are  much  con 
tracted  in  religious  thought. 

In  conclusion,  the  fathers  sent  away  Ann  Hutchinson  be 
cause  they  traced  directly  to  her,  as  they  thought,  a  claim  to 
dangerous  revelations  inciting  to  acts  subversive  of  the  law 
and  the  gospel,  which  had  overthrown  church  and  state  at 
Miinster ; 1  they  sent  her  away  as  a  matter  of  public  policy, 
but  not  until  they  had  found,  by  means  of  a  synod,  eighty-two 
specimens,  attributed  to  her  influence,  of  the  Miinster  poison, 
afloat  in  an  infant  state  struggling  into  existence  and  not 
yet  grown  to  such  manly  vigor  that  it  could  resist  and  cast 
out  noxious  influences  without  forcible  remedies. 

1  "  There  stands  upon  record  a  most  shocking  instance  of  this  [Ana 
baptist  delusion]  in  the  dreadful  commotions  that  were  excited  at 
Miinster,  in  the  year  1533,  by  certain  Dutch  Anabaptists,  that  chose 
that  city  as  the  scene  of  their  horrid  operations.  .  .  .  Miinster  was  to 
be  the  seat  of  this  new  and  heavenly  Jerusalem,  whose  ghostly  dominion 
was  to  be  propagated  from  thence  to  all  the  ends  of  the  earth.  .  .  .  John 
of  Leyden,  the  Anabaptist  king  of  Miinster,  had  taken  it  into  his  head 
that 'God  had  made  him  a  present  of  the  cities  of  Amsterdam,  Deventer, 
and  Wessel.  .  .  .  The  progress  of  this  turbulent  sect  in  almost  all  of 
the  countries  of  Europe  alarmed  all  that  had  any  concern  for  the  pub 
lic  good.  ...  It  may  be  safely  affirmed,  that,  had  it  not  been  for  the 
vigor  and  fortitude  of  this  active  and  undaunted  reformer  [Martin 
Luther]  the  Lutheran  Church  would,  in  its  infancy,  have  fallen  a  miser 
able  prey  to  the  enthusiastic  fury  of  these  detestable  fanatics."  (Mos- 
heim's  Eccl.  Hist.,  iv..3O5,  437,  438;  Kostlin's  Life  of  Luther,  304-324.) 
Such  was  the  dread  in  Massachusetts  of  this  Antinomian  doctrine,  that 
men  declared  in  their  wills  that  they  died  free  from  its  contamination. 
(See  the  wills  of  Dudley  and  Robert  Keayne.) 

The  British  Parliament  on  the  second  day  of  May,  1648,  passed  an 
ordinance  against  Antinomians  more  severe  than  anything  which  ever 
appeared  in  America.  This  was  more  than  ten  years  after  Ann  Hutch- 
inson's  banishment.  (Neal's  Hist.  Puritans,  iii.  418-421.)  Sir  Harry 
Vane  was  a  member,  probably  present.  (Hosmer's  Young  Sir  Harry 
Vane,  297,  298.) 


CHAPTER   XXII 

IT  was  ordered  in  October,  1636,  that  all  the  military  men 
in  this  jurisdiction,  including  the  whole  colony,  shall  be 
ranked  into  three  regiments  :  Governor  Vane  to  be  com- 
mander-in-chief,  John  Winthrop  to  be  colonel,  and  Thomas 
Dudley  lieutenant-colonel  of  the  first  regiment.  It  is  not 
quite  apparent  why  Dudley,  who  was  more  of  a  military  man, 
was  placed  second  in  command,  or  why,  as  he  now  resided 
in  Ipswich,  he  was  not  in  the  third  regiment  instead  of  the 
first.  The  election  for  governor  and  deputy  governor  in 
May,  1637,  was  an  occasion  of  much  anxiety.  Religious  and 
political  interests  combined  to  create  great  public  excite 
ment.  The  Boston  faction  was  determined  to  return  the 
present  governor,  Vane.  The  towns  outside  of  Boston 
were  dissatisfied  with  him,  among  other  reasons  because  he 
was  of  the  Antinomian  party.  Winthrop,  the  honored  first 
governor,  had  now  been  out  of  office  three  years,  rotation  in 
office  having  been  well  exemplified ;  in  these  stormy  times  of 
division  and  party  faction  he  appeared  to  be  the  safest  man, 
particularly  with  Dudley  in  the  second  place. 

As  early  as  March  the  Court  decided  that  it  would  not  be 
expedient  to  hold  the  election  in  Boston,  and  selected  Cam 
bridge  as  the  most  convenient  place.  This  action  was  a 
great  mortification  to  Governor  Vane.  One  thing  which 
influenced  the  Court  against  Boston  was  a  petition  already 
mentioned,  signed  by  many  prominent  citizens  of  that  town, 
condemning  the  Court  for  its  proceedings  against  Wheel 
wright,  the  Antinomian. 

When  the  Court  of  Election  opened  at  Cambridge  at  one 
p.  M.,  May  17,  1637,  another  similar  petition  was  offered, 
which  Governor  Vane  wanted  read,  but  which  Deputy 


234  THOMAS   DUDLEY  [CH.  xxn 

Governor  Winthrop  objected  to  as  being  out  of  order ;  the 
first  business  being  the  election  under  the  charter,  it  must 
take  precedence  of  all  other  matters.  Still  the  governor 
would  not  proceed  to  election,  and  the  deputy,  Winthrop, 
called  for  a  division  of  the  members  on  that  question.  The 
majority  voted  to  proceed  to  election.  The  governor,  after 
more  useless  delay,  at  last  submitted,  and  they  proceeded. 
Winthrop  was  chosen  governor  and  Dudley  deputy. 

Vane  and  the  Antinomian  party  were  left  out,  and  the 
cause  of  Mrs.  Hutchinson  in  Massachusetts  was  forever  lost. 
Hutchinson  has  an  interesting  note  respecting  this  election, 
which  must  not  be  omitted.  It  is  as  follows  :  "  Mr.  Wilson, 
the  minister,1  in  his  zeal  gat  up  upon  the  bough  of  a  tree  (it 
was  hot  weather  and  the  election  like  that  of  parliament  men 
for  the  counties  of  England  was  carried  on  in  the  field),  and 
there  made  a  speech,  advising  the  people  to  look  to  their 
charter  and  to  consider  the  present  work  of  the  day,  which 
was  designed  for  the  choosing  the  governor,  deputy  gov 
ernor,  and  the  rest  of  the  assistants,  for  the  government  of 
the  commonwealth.  His  speech  was  well  received  by  the 
people,  who  presently  called  out,  'Election,  election,'  which 
turned  the  scale."  2 

"  In  some  of  the  first  years,  the  annual  election  of  the 
governor  and  magistrates  of  the  colony  was  holden  in  this 
town  [Cambridge].  The  people,  on  these  occasions,  assem 
bled  under  an  oak-tree,  which  stood  on  the  northerly  side 
of  the  Common  in  Cambridge,  a  little  west  of  the  road  lead 
ing  to  Lexington.  The  stump  of  it  was  dug  up  not  many 
years  since."  3  This  was  probably  the  tree  which  furnished 
Wilson  a  commanding  position,  whence  he  turned  the  tide 
against  Mr.  Vane  and  his  party,  and  carried  the  Great  and 
General  Court  for  Winthrop  and  Dudley.* 

1  Of  Boston,  violently  hostile  to  Antinomianism,  the  colleague  of 
Cotton  in  the  First  Church,  and  also  antagonistic  to  him  in  the  Hutch- 
inson  controversy. 

2  Hutchinson,  i.  61,  note.  8  Mass.  Hist.  Soc.  Coll.,  vii.  9. 
4  Paige's  Hist.  Camb.,  23,  24,  note. 


i637]  WINTHROP   ELECTED   GOVERNOR  235 

"  There  was  great  danger  of  violent  tumult  that  day.  The 
speeches  on  both  sides  were  fierce,  and  they  began  to  lay 
hands  on  one  another,  but  the  manifest  majority  on  one  side 
was  a  restraint  to  the  other.  .  .  .  The  sergeants,  who  used 
to  attend  Mr.  Vane,  laid  down  their  halberds  and  went  home 
as  soon  as  the  new  governor  was  elected,  and  they  refused 
to  attend  him  to  and  from  the  meetings  on  the  Lord's  day 
as  had  been  usual.  They  pretended  that  this  extraordinary 
respect  was  shown  to  Mr.  Vane  as  a  person  of  quality.  The 
Court  would  have  appointed  others,  but  Winthrop  took  two 
of  his  own  servants  to  attend  him.  Mr.  Vane  professed 
himself  ready  to  serve  the  cause  of  God  in  the  meanest 
capacity.  He  was,  notwithstanding,  much  mortified,  and 
discovered  his  resentment ;  although  he  had  sat  at  church 
among  the  magistrates  from  his  first  arrival,  yet  he,  and 
those  who  had  been  left  out  with  him,  placed  themselves 
with  the  deacons,  and  when  he  was  invited  by  the  governor 
to  return  to  his  place  he  refused  it."1 

Mr.  Savage  does  not  think  that  a  discourtesy  was  intended 
to  Winthrop  by  the  sergeants,  but  that  their  term  of  office 
had  expired,  and  they  had  no  authority  to  act  or  serve  Win 
throp.2  Hutchinson  does  not  seem  to  accord  with  Savage  in 
this,  neither  does  Mather.3 

The  next  matter  to  attract  notice  is  an  order  of  the  Court 
to  keep  out  of  the  colony  such  persons  as,  in  the  opinion  of 
the  magistrates,  might  be  dangerous  to  it.  This  called  forth 
a  long  controversy  between  Winthrop  and  Vane,  and  fur 
nished  Vane  with  some  discipline  and  some  serious  consid 
erations  respecting  individual  rights  and  the  obligations  of 
states,  which  had  a  place,  and  were  valuable  to  him  in  the 
struggle  for  liberty  in  England,  soon  to  follow  after  his 
•return  thither.4  "The  twelfth  of  the  eighth  month  was 
ordered  to  be  kept  a  day  of  public  thanksgiving  to  God  for 
his  great  mercy  in  subduing  the  Pequots,  bringing  the 

1  Hutchinson,  i.  61,  62.  a  Winthrop,  i.  *22O,  note. 

8  Mather's  Magnalia,  i.  1 14. 

4  Winthrop,  i.  *224;  Mass.  Col.  Rec.,  i.  193. 


236  THOMAS   DUDLEY  [CH.  xxn 

soldiers  in  safety,  for  the  success  of  the  conference,1  and 
good  news  from  Germany." 

They  were  all  the  while  following  with  intense  feeling 
the  fortunes  of  the  Thirty  Years'  War.  Absorbed  deeply  in 
their  own  contentions  and  political  evolutions,  and  anxious 
about  the  revolution  in  England,  which  was  vital  to  their 
welfare  in  all  directions,  still  they  sympathized  with  the  old 
Protestant  cause,  its  heroes  and  defenders  in  Germany,  and 
set  apart  a  day,  and  returned  thanks  to  Almighty  God  for 
the  success  of  the  soldiers  of  liberty,  who  have  registered 
from  age  to  age  on  fields  of  mortal  combat  the  steps  of 
human  progress.  The  Puritans  themselves  had  forsaken 
their  homes  in  England,  and  come  to  this  far-off  wilderness 
to  construct,  maintain,  and  enjoy  free  institutions.  No  per 
sons,  therefore,  in  the  habitable  world  had  a  more  vivid 
sense  of  the  importance  of  that  freedom  which  had  been 
achieved  in  the  German  wars.  Thomas  Dudley  has  expe 
rienced  as  a  soldier  all  that  an  earnest  man  can,  who  has 
enlisted  and  taken  the  risks  of  war  because  his  heart  was 
engaged  in  the  objects  of  the  struggle,  because  he  loved 
and  believed  in  the  cause  in  which,  moreover,  he  had  lost 
in  infancy  his  lamented  father.  He  could  never  cease  to 
remember  their  family  sacrifices,  the  associations  connected 
with  continental  war,  and,  above  all,  its  purposes,  objects, 
and  results.  And  he,  indeed,  reinforced  by  vigorous  and 
living  experience,  could  heartily  join  in  thanksgivings  and 
hosannas  ascending  from  the  new  world  in  behalf  of  the  old. 

The  following  letter  of  Dudley  to  Winthrop  furnishes 
some  interesting  suggestions  respecting  the  religious  con 
troversies  at  that  time. 

SIR,  —  Since  my  coming  home,  I  have  read  over  Mr. 
Lechford's  book  and  find  the  scope  thereof  to  be  erroneous 
and  dangerous,  if  not  heretical  according  to  my  conception. 

His  tenet  being  that  the  office  of  Apostleship  doth  still 

1  The  synod  which  had  discovered  eighty-two  particular  Antinomian 
poisonous  heresies. 


1638]  DUDLEY  AND   LECHFORD'S   BOOK  237 

continue,  and  ought  so  to  do  until  Christ's  coming,  and  that 
a  church  hath  now  power  to  make  Apostles  as  our  Saviour 
Christ  had  when  he  was  here,  other  things  there  are  but  I 
pray  you  consider  of  this,  and  the  inseparable  consequences 
of  it.  I  hear  that  Mr.  Cotton  and  Mr.  Rogers  know  some 
thing  of  the  matter,  or  man,  with  whom  you  may  if  you 
please  confer.  I  hear  also  that  he  favoreth  Mr.  Lenthall 
and  hath  so  expressed  himself  since  Mr.  Lenthall  was  ques 
tioned  by  the  ministers.  It  is  easier  stopping  a  breach  when 
it  begins  than  afterward.  We  saw  our  error  in  suffering 
Mrs.  Hutchinson  too  long.  I  have  sent  you  the  book  here 
with,  that  instead  of  putting  it  to  the  press,  as  he  desireth, 
it  may  rather  be  put  into  the  fire  as  I  desire.  But  I  pray 
you  let  him  know  that  I  have  sent  the  book  to  you  and  after 
you  have  read  it  (which  I  think  you  said  you  had  not  done) 
it  may  be  restored  to  him.  I  received  yesterday  a  letter 
from  my  loving  friend  Mr.  Burdett  to  excuse  himself  of  the 
slander  laid  upon  him  for  baptizing  any;  with  some  high 
strains  of  other  matter,  which  I  have  answered.  This  is  all 
I  have  at  present ;  with  due  respect  therefore  I  take  leave, 

resting,  Yours, 

THO  :  DUDLEY. 
ROXBURY,  Dec.  n,  1638. 

P.  S.  I  suppose  the  book  to  be  rather  copied  out  than 
contrived  by  Mr.  Lechford,  he  being  I  think,  not  so  good  a 
Grecian  and  Hebretian  as  the  author  undertakes  to  be. 
There  was  one  here  to-day  of  Weymouth  to  buy  treacle  (as 
I  hear)  who  reported  that  there  are  sixty  persons  sick  there 
of  the  spotted  fever  except  three  of  them  of  the  small-pox. 
If  this  be  true  the  plague  is  begun  in  the  camp  for  this  sin 
of  people.1 

Dudley,  in  a  letter  to  Winthrop,  written  eighteen  days  after 
the  former  one,  refers  again  to  some  of  the  matters  contained 
in  his  first  letter  :  — 

1  Labeled  "Brother  Dudley  about  Mr.  Lechford's  Book."  (Proc. 
Mass.  Hist.  Soc.,  1855-58,  311,  312.) 


238  THOMAS   DUDLEY  [CH.  xxn 

To   THE    RIGHT   WORSHIPFUL    JOHN    WINTHROP,    ESQR., 

Governor  at  Boston. 

Sir,  —  I  thank  you  for  your  gammon  of  bacon,  the  out- 
sides  whereof  I  was  forced  to  cut  off,  it  smelled  so  restily  of 
the  old  Saxon  reesings.  I  meant  in  my  censure  of  your  last 
book  no  resurrection  of  unreasonable  individuals,  but  a 
continuance  of  those,  or  some  of  them  which  should  be  alive 
at  the  consummation,  which  I  think  is  the  same  with  your 
species.  The  breaking  open  of  your  letters  was  presump 
tuous  if  not  hostile.  For  Mr.  Gibbins,  I  think  I  shall  satisfy 
you  at  my  next  coming  to  Boston.  For  Mr.  Lechford  and 
his  book  you  say  nothing,  and  I  have  since  heard  that  the 
worst  opinion  in  his  book  (which  I  think  I  shall  prove  to 
be  heresy)  is  taken  up  by  others.  Now  seeing  that  this  is 
the  way  Satan  invades  us  by  (viz.  new  opinions  and  here 
sies),  it  behooves  us  to  be  the  more  vigilant  and  to  stir  up 
our  zeals  and  stop  breaches  at  the  beginning  least  forbear 
ance  hurt  us  as  it  did  before.  I  desire  *to  see  the  letter 
Capt.  Underbill  wrote  to  Mr.  Cotton.  I  take  leave,  resting 
ready  to  do  your  service. 

THO  :  DUDLEY. 
Dec.  29:  I638.1 

This  Thomas  Lechford  named  in  the  letters  was  the  first 
lawyer  who  practiced  in  New  England,  and  returned  under 
many  difficulties  to  England  in  1641,  dissatisfied  with  his 
experience  in  America.  We  have  previously  noticed  the  dis 
like  of  the  Massachusetts  Puritans  for  lawyers.  Lechford 
published  in  1642,  in  London,  "  Plaine  Dealing;  or,  Newes 
from  New  England."  '  And  it  is  no  doubt  this  book  that  he 
presented  to  Dudley  in  manuscript  for  his  examination  and 
approval.  Dudley  was  more  critical  and  solicitous  respect 
ing  heresy,  evidently,  than  Lechford  had  supposed.  Neither 
was  he  willing  to  pass  upon  a  matter  so  vital  to  the  public 
interest  without  consulting  his  associate  Winthrop.  This 
course  was  not  agreeable  to  Lechford,  who  wrote  to  Hugh 

1  Indorsed  by  Governor  Winthrop,  "  My  Brother  Dudley."  (Mass. 
Hist.  Soc.  Coll.,  4th  series,  vii.  100,  in.) 


1639]  DUDLEY  AND   LECHFORD'S    BOOK  239 

Peters  in  January,  1639,  "After  the  court  here  ended  I  de 
livered  (my  book)  of  prophesie  to  Mr.  Deputy  [meaning 
Dudley]  to  advise  thereof  as  a  private  friend,  as  a  godly 
man,  and  a  member  of  the  church,  whether  it  were  fit  to  be 
published.  The  next  news  I  had  was,  that  at  first  dash  he 
accused  me  of  heresy,  and  wrote  to  Mr.  Governor  that  my 
book  was  fitter  to  be  burned."  It  is  very  evident  from  Dud 
ley's  letter  first  above  quoted,  that  he  did  not  regard  the 
placing  of  the  book  in  his  hands  as  matter  of  personal  con 
fidence.  He  undoubtedly  thought  that  he  was  allowed  to 
inspect  Lechford's  book,  because  he  would  not  otherwise 
have  said  in  his  letter,  "  But  I  pray  you  let  him  know  that  I 
have  sent  the  book  to  you,  that  after  you  have  read  it  ... 
it  may  be  restored  to  him."  It  seems  very  certain  that 
Dudley  understood  that  Lechford  desired  the  opinion  of  per 
sons  in  influence  and  authority  respecting  his  book,  and 
therefore  Dudley  passed  it  over  in  good  faith  into  the  hands 
of  the  most  important  person  in  the  colony,  providing  at 
the  same  time  for  its  safe  return,  after  examination,  to  Lech- 
ford. 

It  was  certainly  greatly  to  the  credit  of  Dudley  that  he 
detected  so  soon  the  heresy  of  Lechford,  which  denied  the 
right  of  the  people  to  elect  their  own  rulers,  and  also  the 
validity  of  any  non-Episcopal  ordination.  He  thus  became 
prominent  in  detecting  that  which  was  soon  apparent  to  all 
in  authority.  We  find  in  a  sketch  of  J.  H.  Trumbull's  "  Life 
of  Lechford,"  page  25,  the  following  statement:  "That  he 
[Lechford]  should  have  been  permitted,  for  two  years  and 
a  half,  to  hold  his  course  unchecked,  and  that  his  uncon 
cealed  and  somewhat  aggressive  dissent  should  have  so  long 
escaped  censure,  proves  that  the  founders  of  Massachusetts 
were  not  incapable  of  the  exercise  of  toleration,  even  though 
they  might  not  give  it  a  place  among  the  virtues." 

Dudley  says,  it  will  be  remembered,  in  the  above  letter, 
"  I  hear  that  he  also  favoreth  Mr.  Lenthall  and  hath  so  ex 
pressed  himself."  Winthrop  says,  "This  man  Lenthall  was 
found  to  have  drank  in  some  of  Mrs.  Hutchinson's  opin- 


240  THOMAS   DUDLEY  [CH.  xxn 

ions,"  whereupon  he  was  required  by  the  Court  to  make  a 
recantation  at  Weymouth.1 

George  Burdett,  mentioned  in  one  of  the  letters  quoted, 
found  his  way  to  Dover,  N.  H.,  after  he  had  preached  at 
Salem,  but  he  was  discovered  at  last  to  be  a  spy  in  the  ser 
vice  of  Archbishop  Laud.  He  was  an  enemy  to  the  Puri 
tans,  and  had  a  contention  at  Dover  with  Knollys,  the  Anti- 
nomian.  He  was  so  imprudent  in  a  letter  to  Winthrop  that 
he  would  have  been  brought  to  Boston  to  answer  for  con 
tempt,  but  for  the  influence  of  Dudley,  who  was  fearful  that 
if  he  became  hostile  to  Massachusetts  he  might  do  greater 
injury  to  her  interests  in  England.  For  Winthrop  says,  "  As 
the  governor  [Winthrop]  says  he  was  purposed  to  summon 
him  [Burdett]  to  appear  at  our  Court  to  answer  his  contempt, 
but,  advising  with  the  deputy  [Dudley]  about  it,  he  was 
dissuaded  from  it,  the  rather  for  that,  if  he  should  suffer  him 
this  cause  it  would  ingratiate  him  more  with  the  Archbishop 
(with  whom  he  had  intelligence,  etc.),  but  his  counsel  was 
rather  to  undermine  him  by  making  him  thoroughly  known/' 
etc. 

It  is  difficult  to  understand  why  Dudley  speaks  of  Burdett 
in  such  terms  of  affection,  calling  him  "  My  loving  friend, 
Mr.  Burdett."  The  most  natural  explanation  would  seem 
to  be  that  he  had  not  then  discovered  that  he  was  an  enemy 
of  the  colony  and  an  English  spy  in  the  employ  of  Arch 
bishop  Laud.  Burdett  had  evidently,  somewhere  and  some 
how,  won  the  confidence  of  Dudley,  and  misled  him  for  a 
while,  until  his  eyes  were  opened  to  the  true  nature  of  the 
man  and  his  mission. 

But  this  circumstance  is  greatly  to  our  advantage,  for  it 
furnishes  an  opportunity  for  us  to  observe  the  method  and 
action  of  Dudley  when  required  to  take  responsibility  in  a 
crisis.  His  reserve,  coolness,  and  forethought,  when  even 
Winthrop  was  impassioned,  was  truly  admirable.  He  ad 
vised  to  wait  patiently,  and  thus  undermine  the  enemy  slowly 
and  surely,  step  by  step.  The  two  great  leaders  are  thus 
1  Winthrop,  i.  288  ;  Mass.  Col.  Rec.,  i.  254. 


i637]  DUDLEY   AND    HERESY  241 

brought  before  us  side  by  side  in  an  important  exigency, 
that  we  may  see  and  compare  them,  and  form  our  own  opin 
ions  as  to  which  exhibited  the  greater  qualities,  and  their 
methods. 

The  following  letter  of  Sir  Richard  Saltonstall  to  the  Rev. 
Mr.  Wilson  and  the  Rev.  Mr.  Cotton  throws  further  light 
upon  the  Christian  firmness  of  Dudley  in  matters  of  heresy. 
He  says :  — 

"  When  I  was  in  Holland  about  the  beginning  of  the  wars, 
I  remember  some  Christians  there,  that  then  had  serious 
thought  of  planting  in  New  England,  desired  me  to  write  to 
the  governor  thereof  to  know  if  those  that  differ  from  you 
in  opinion,  yet  holding  the  same  foundation  in  religion  as 
Anabaptists,  Seekers,  Antinomians,  and  the  like,  might  be 
permitted  to  live  among  you,  to  which  I  received  the  short 
answer  from  your  then  governor  Mr.  Dudley,  '  God  forbid 
(said  he)  our  love  for  the  truth  should  be  grown  so  cold  that 
we  should  tolerate  errors,'  and  when  (for  satisfaction  of  my 
self  and  others)  I  desired  to  know  your  grounds,  he  referred 
me  to  the  books  written  here  between  the  Presbyterians  and 
Independents,  which  if  that  had  tyeen  sufficient,  I  need  not 
have  sent  so  far  to  understand  the  reasons  of  your  practice. 
I  hope  you  do  not  assume  to  yourselves  infallibility  of  judg 
ment,  when  the  most  learned  of  the  Apostles  confesseth  that 
he  knew  but  in  part,  and  saw  but  darkly  as  through  a  glass, 
etc. 

"  Your  truly  and  most  affectionate  friend  in  the  nearest 
union, 

"  Ric :  SALTONSTALL. 

"  For  my  Reverend  and  worthily  much  esteemed  friends, 
Mr.  Cotton  and  Mr.  Wilson,  preachers  to  the  church 
which  is  at  Boston  in  New  England." 

The  next  matter  on  the  record  which  attracts  attention  is 
the  first  appearance,  possibly,  of  American  hotel-keeping, 
which  is  naturally  unique  and  curious.  Sumptuary  laws  are 
at  best  rigid,  and  not  altogether  agreeable  reading,  for  at 


242  THOMAS   DUDLEY  [CH.  xxn 

every  turn  they  excite  our  commiseration  for  those  excellent 
people  who  had  so  few  of  the  comforts  and  almost  none  of 
the  luxuries  of  life. 

"  And  whereas  complaint  hath  been  also  made  that  divers 
poor  people,  who  would  willingly  content  themselves  with 
mean  diet,  are  forced  to  take  such  diet  as  is  tendered  them  at 
twelve  pence  the  meal  or  more,  it  is  now  ordered  that  every 
keeper  of  such  inn  or  common  victualing  house  shall  sell 
and  allow  unto  every  of  their  guests  such  victual  as  they 
call  for,  and  not  force  them  to  take  more  or  other  than  they 
desire,  be  it  never  so  mean  and  small  in  quantity,  and  shall 
afford  the  same  and  all  other  diet  at  reasonable  prices,  upon 
pain  of  such  fine  as  the  Court  shall  inflict  according  to  the 
measure  and  quantity  of  the  offense." 1 

As  we  have  already  noticed,  the  college  is  ordered  to  be 
at  Newtown  by  the  General  Court,  November  15,  1637,  and 
on  the  2Oth  day  of  the  same  month  the  Court  appointed  a 
committee  "  to  take  order  "  for  a  college  at  Newtown.2 

"  For  the  college,  the  governor,  Mr.  Winthrop,  the  deputy, 
Mr.  Dudley,  the  treasurer,  Mr.  Bellingham,  Mr.  Humfrey, 
Mr.  Herlakenden,  Mr.  Stoughton,  Mr.  Cotton,  Mr.  Wilson, 
Mr.  Davenport,  Mr.  Wells,  Mr.  Shepard,  and  Mr.  Peters, 
these,  or  the  greater  part  of  them,  whereof  Mr.  Winthrop, 
Mr.  Dudley,  or  Mr.  Bellingham,  to  be  always  one  to  take 
order  for  a  college  at  Newtown."  3 

We  have  quoted  this  entire  act,  to  show  how  conspicuous 
the  three  men,  Winthrop,  Dudley,  and  Bellingham,  were  at 
the  inception  of  this  institution.  Our  special  interest  is  at 
present  centred  in  Dudley,  one  of  the  three,  and  the  peer 
of  either  of  them  in  all-round  practical  knowledge  and  in 
formation. 

President  Josiah  Quincy  tells  us  that  "  the  year  ensuing 

1  Mass.  Col.  Rec.,  i.  214. 

2  "  To  take  order "  is  an  obsolete  phrase,  and  means  to  take  "  suit 
able  action  in  view  of  some  particular  result  or  end ;  care  preparations ; 
measures."    (Century  Diet,  4143.) 

3  Mass.  Col.  Rec.,  i.  217. 


1637]     DUDLEY   FAMILY  AND   HARVARD   COLLEGE      243 

(1637),  the  General  Court  appointed  twelve  of  the  most  emi 
nent  men  of  the  colony  to  take  order  for  a  college  at  New- 
town,  all  of  them  names  dear  to  New  England,  on  account 
of  their  sacrifices,  their  sufferings  and  virtues."  While  these 
men  were  contemplating  the  laying  of  the  foundation  of  the 
college,  John  Harvard  died,  in  1638,  and  was  found  to  have 
bequeathed  one  half  of  his  whole  property,  and  his  entire 
library  to  the  institution. 

We  have  not  found  that  this  committee  was  changed  until 
1642,  and  it  is  therefore  safe  to  conclude  that  the  whole  gov 
ernment  and  construction  of  the  college  was  in  their  care 
until  that  date.  The  college  was  chartered  in  1642,  and  again 
received  a  new  charter  in  1650,  with  the  signature  of  Gov 
ernor  Thomas  Dudley.  "  A  copy  of  the  original,  engrossed 
on  parchment,  under  the  signature  of  Governor  Dudley,  with 
the  colony  seal  appendant,  is  in  the  custody  of  the  President 
and  Fellows  of  Harvard  College." *  Governor  Dudley  did 
not  cease  to  be  on  the  Board  of  Overseers  of  the  college 
during  nearly  sixteen  years,  from  that  2Oth  day  of  Novem 
ber,  1637,  until  his  death. 

His  family,  also,  was  destined  later  to  serve  the  college  in 
time  of  special  need.  It  appears  that  Governor  Joseph  Dud 
ley,  the  son  of  Governor  Thomas  Dudley,  "who  held  be 
tween  May  and  December,  in  the  year  1686  [just  before  the 
arrival  of  Governor  Andros],  the  commission  of  president  of 
the  colony,  and  William  Stoughton,  who  held  during  the 
same  time  that  of  deputy  president,  availed  themselves  of 
their  transitory  power  to  place  the  college  on  a  basis  adapted 
to  the  uncertainty  which  hung  over  its  destinies,  in  common 
with  those  of  the  colony,"  at  that  critical  period.  President 
Josiah  Quincy  said,  "  Of  all  the  statesmen  who  have  been 
instrumental  in  promoting  the  interests  of  Harvard  College, 
Joseph  Dudley  was  most  influential  in  giving  its  constitution 
a  permanent  character." 

There  had  for  a  long  time  been  a  desire  for  a  new  charter 
for  the  college  from  the  crown,  since  the  charter  of  the 
1  Josiah  Quincy's  Hist,  of  Harv.  Univ.,  i.  591. 


244  THOMAS    DUDLEY  [CH.  xxn 

colony  had  been  annulled.  It  did  not  seem  possible  of  attain* 
ment,  but  Governor  Joseph  Dudley,  with  a  bold  movement, 
secured  that  which  served  as  a  substitute. 

He  furnished  at  once  "the  long-sought  charter  for  the 
college,  and  fulfilled  the  utmost  desire  of  his  friends,  in  a 
form  not  requiring  the  sanction  of  the  crown,  and  deriving 
all  its  efficacy  from  the  authority  of  the  provincial  legislature. 
.  .  .  This  measure  had,  probably,  its  origin  in  the  depths  of 
Dudley's  own  mind,  and  is  marked  with  boldness  and  saga 
city  eminently  characteristic  of  him.  It  is  hardly  probable 
that  any  other  person  would  have  ventured  to  propose  a 
course  so  full  of  responsibility." 

He,  in  1707,  "in  defiance  of  all  recognized  principles,  had 
the  boldness  to  consent  to  revive  the  college  charter  of  1650 
[the  very  charter  his  honored  father,  Thomas  Dudley,  had 
signed  fifty-seven  years  before],  and  thus  established  a  char 
ter,  contrary  to  the  will  of  the  British  sovereign.  ...  He 
took  the  great  responsibility  of  a  dangerous  policy,  and  he 
deserves  all  the  credit  of  its  success. 

"  It  is  also  certain,  that  the  measure  received  the  almost 
universal  approbation  of  the  people  of  Massachusetts ;  that 
the  act  of  1650,  thus  revived  by  a  legislative  resolve,  has 
been  ever  since  recognized  as  the  charter  of  the  college  ;  that, 
during  the  continuance  of  the  colonial  relation,  it  received 
the  uniform  support  of  judicial  decision  and  legislative  sanc 
tion  ;  and  that,  on  the  adoption  of  the  state  Constitution,  in 
1780,  it  was  ratified  and  confirmed.  Thus,  by  virtue  of  uni 
form  judicial  construction,  successive  legislative  sanction, 
and  ultimate  constitutional  ratification,  the  charter  of  1650 
[signed  by  Thomas  Dudley]  has  been  established  on  a  firm 
and  now  incontrovertible  basis."1 

It  is  a  great  pleasure  to  follow  thus  the  united  services  of 
these  two  governors  throughout  the  charter  life  of  the  col 
lege  to  the  present  day.  Governor  Joseph  Dudley  was  a 
courtier  and  a  politician  very  different  in  character  from  his 
honored  father.  He  has  been  the  subject  of  bitter  and  often 
1  Josiah  Quincy's  Hist.  Harv.  Univ.,  i.  158-161. 


1637]     DUDLEY   FAMILY  AND   HARVARD    COLLEGE     245 

undeserved  denunciation.  He  was  an  Episcopalian  who  did 
not  always  please  the  Mathers,  and  in  his  sworn  duty  to  the 
mother  country  did  not  always  act  in  a  manner  to  satisfy  the 
selfish,  and  possibly  sometimes  the  legitimate,  wishes  of  his 
countrymen  in  America.  The  colonial  governors,  if  native- 
born  Americans,  certainly  if  not  Puritans  in  religion,  were 
at  best  between  two  fires,  and  are  entitled  to  some  considera 
tion.  It  is  only  fair  to  say  of  Joseph  Dudley  that  certain  of 
his  contemporaries  in  America  eulogized  both  his  character 
and  services  in  the  strongest  terms,  while  others,  then  and 
since,  have  been  equally  free  in  censuring  him.  It  is  the 
reward  of  politics.  He  is  said  to  have  been  the  first  native- 
born  American  who  ever  sat  as  a  member  in  the  British  Par 
liament. 

The  college  had  yet  one  more  benefactor  in  this  family  in 
Judge  Paul  Dudley,  the  son  of  Governor  Joseph  Dudley,  and 
grandson  of  Governor  Thomas  Dudley.  He  was  attorney- 
general  of  Massachusetts  sixteen  years  ;  a  judge  of  the  supe 
rior  court,  the  highest  in  the  colony,  twenty-seven  years,  and 
chief  justice  of  the  same  court  six  years,  thus  making  in  all 
a  round  judicial  service  of  forty-nine  years,  almost  half  of  the 
century.  He  founded  the  Dudleian  lectures  by  a  bequest  of 
one  hundred  pounds  to  the  college,  which  donation  has  in 
one  important  direction  quite  outgrown  its  usefulness. 

We  are  not  informed  that  Governor  Thomas  Dudley  made 
any  donations  whatever  to  the  college.  And  many  persons 
have  no  doubt  thought,  from  what  has  been  said  and  written 
about  him,  that  it  was  not  in  his  nature  to  have  given 
money.  This  is  a  gross  mistake,  unfair  to  his  life  work  of 
Christian  philanthropy  and  self-sacrifice.  He  gave  his  val 
uable  services. 

Cotton  Mather,  who  was  not  more  fond  of  the  Dudley 
family  than  Christian  obligation  required,  said  of  him,  "  That 
which  crowned  all  was  his  sincere  piety,  exact  justice  in  his 
dealings,  hospitality  to  strangers,  and  liberality  to  the  poor."  l 

Dudley's  dominant  thought  appears  in  his  letter  to  the 
1  Proc.  Mass.  Hist.  Soc.,  Jan.  1870,  221. 


246  THOMAS   DUDLEY  [CH.  xxn 

Countess  of  Lincoln.  "If  any  come  hither  to  plant  for 
worldly  ends,  that  can  well  live  at  home  he  commits  an  error, 
of  which  he  will  soon  repent  him,  but  if  for  spiritual,  and 
that  no  particular  obstacle  hinder  his  removal,  he  may  find 
here  what  may  well  content  him.  ...  If  any  godly  men, 
out  of  religious  ends,  will  come  over  to  help  us  in  the  good 
work  we  are  about,  I  think  they  cannot  dispose  of  themselves 
nor  of  their  estates  more  to  God's  glory  and  the  furtherance 
of  their  own  reckoning."  Lowell  has  said,  "There  never  was 
a  colony,  save  this,  that  went  forth,  not  to  seek  gold,  but 
God." 

This  is  a  picture  of  his  own  self-sacrificing  missionary 
enterprise  across  the  sea,  leaving  a  life  of  comfort  and  luxury 
to  do  good. 

We  must  not  permit  Winthrop's  charge,  in  a  quarrel  about 
letting  grain  on  shares,  or  the  eulogistic  poetry  quoted  by 
Governor  Belcher,  "  A  bargain  is  a  bargain,"  to  be  wrested 
from  their  original  purpose  to  convince  us  that  Dudley  was  a 
hard  and  penurious  man.  Morton  says,  in  "  New  England's 
Memorial,"  "  His  love  to  the  people  was  evident  in  serving 
them  in  a  public  capacity  many  years  at  his  own  cost,  and 
that  as  a  nursing  father  to  the  churches  of  Christ." 

He  was  thrifty,  but  he  was  also  honest  and  just.  He  did 
not  publish  his  deeds  of  charity.  He  concealed  them,  as  he 
did  his  ancestry  and  himself.  We  have  no  wish  to  give  him 
credit  for  donations  to  the  college  which  were  not  made,  but 
knowing  how  little  he  sought  the  applause  of  men,  we  can 
not  fail  to  remember  that  men  contributed  to  it  who  were 
unwilling  to  have  their  names  recorded.  Mather  tells  us, 
"  But  as  I  find  one  article  to  run  thus,  a  gentleman  not  will 
ing  his  name  should  be  put  upon  record,  gave  $o£ ;  thus  I 
am  so  willing  to  believe  that  most  of  those  good  men  that 
are  mentioned  were  content  with  a  record  of  their  good  deeds 
in  the  book  of  God's  remembrance,"  that  he  does  not  name 
them.1 

President  Quincy  says  that  in  making  donations  to  the 
1  Mather's  Magnalia,  ii.  bk.  iv.  §  3. 


1637]  LIBERALITY   OF  DUDLEY  247 

college,  "  the  magistrates  caught  the  spirit,  and  led  the  way 
by  a  subscription  among  themselves  of  two  hundred  pounds, 
in  books  for  the  library.  The  comparatively  wealthy  [of 
whom  Mr.  Dudley  was  one]  followed  with  gifts  of  twenty 
and  thirty  pounds.  The  needy  multitude  succeeded,  like  the 
widow  of  old,  casting  their  mites  into  the  treasury." 

We  shall  have  occasion  hereafter  to  witness  the  liberality 
of  Dudley,  who  was  the  most  prominent  founder  in  1645-46 
of  the  Roxbury  Latin  School.  His  hand  appears  indeed  in 
every  good  work,  in  founding  churches,  schools,  wholesome 
laws,  the  commonwealth,  and  the  union  of  the  colonies. 

His  daughter,  Mrs.  Bradstreet,  knew  her  father  well,  and 
if  we  regard  her  testimony  with  less  confidence  because  of 
her  filial  affection,  still  she  was  honest,  and  her  simple  de 
clarations  are  convincing.  She  writes  :  — 

"  High  thoughts  he  gave  no  harbor  in  his  heart, 
Nor  honors  puffed  him  up,  when  he  had  part : 
Those  titles  loath'd,  which  some  too  much  do  love 
For  truly  his  ambition  lay  above. 
His  humble  mind  so  loved  humility, 
He  left  it  to  his  race  for  legacy : 
And  oft  and  oft,  with  speeches  mild  and  wise, 
Gave  his  in  charge,  that  jewel  rich  to  prize. 
No  ostentation  seen  in  all  his  ways, 
As  in  the  mean  ones,  of  our  foolish  days, 
Which  all  they  have,  and  more  still  set  to  view, 
Their  greatness  may  be  judged  by  what  they  shew. 
His  thoughts  were  more  sublime,  his  actions  wise, 
Such  vanities  he  justly  did  despise."  l 

The  jewels  of  Fair  Harvard,  like  those  of  Cornelia,  the 
brave  mother  of  the  Gracchi,  are  her  illustrious  children, 
some  of  the  noblest  of  whom  have  descended  from  Thomas 
Dudley. 

i  The  Works  of  Anne  Bradstreet,  ed.  by  J.  H.  Ellis,  366. 


CHAPTER   XXIII 

LAW-BUILDING  is  a  matter  of  the  greatest  human  interest, 
not  only  because  it  demands  the  highest  qualities  of  intel 
lectual  endowment  and  knowledge  of  social  order,  but,  what 
is  of  more  interest  in  general,  the  laws  created  are  supposed 
to  gather  into  themselves  the  regular  steps  of  advance  in 
human  thought  and  progress,  and  are  therefore  a  concen 
trated  history  of  our  race  during  the  periods  included  by 
them.  The  laws  of  this  colony  are  of  especial  interest,  be 
cause  they  were  made  at  the  beginning  of  political  and  social 
life  unlike  anything  in  the  previous  history  of  the  world. 
The  General  Court,  on  the  I2th  day  of  March,  1638,  enacted 
as  follows  :  "  For  the  well  ordering  of  these  plantations, 
now  in  the  beginning  thereof,  it  having  been  found  by  the 
little  time  of  experience  we  have  had  here,  that  the  want  of 
written  laws  has  put  the  Court  into  many  doubts,  and  much 
trouble  in  many  particular  cases,  this  Court  hath  therefore 
ordered  that  the  freemen  of  every  town  (or  some  part  thereof 
chosen  by  the  rest)  within  this  jurisdiction  shall  assemble 
together  in  their  several  towns,  and  collect  the  heads  of  such 
necessary  and  fundamental  laws  as  may  be  suitable  to  the 
times  and  places  where  God  by  his  Providence  hath  cast  us, 
and  the  heads  of  such  laws  to  deliver  in  writing  to  the  gov 
ernor,  for  the  time  being,  before  the  fifth  day  of  the  fourth 
month,  called  June  next,  to  the  intent  that  the  same  gov 
ernor,  together  with  the  rest  of  the  Standing  Council  [that 
is,  Dudley  and  Endicott]  and  Mr.  Richard  Bellingham,  Esq., 
Mr.  Bulkley,  Mr.  Philips,  Mr.  Peters,  and  Mr.  Shepard,  eld 
ers  of  several  churches,  Mr.  Nathaniel  Ward,  Mr.  William 
Spencer,  and  Mr.  William  Hawthorne,  or  the  major  part  of 
them,  may,  upon  the  survey  of  such  heads  of  laws,  make  a 


1638]          GOOD   GOVERNMENT   IN   THE   COLONY          249 

compendious  abridgment  of  the  same  by  the  General  Court 
in  autumn  next,  adding  yet  to  the  same  or  detracting  there 
from  what  in  their  wisdom  shall  seem  meet,  that  so  the 
whole  work  being  perfected  to  the  best  of  their  skill,  it  may 
be  presented  to  the  General  Court  for  confirmation  or  rejec 
tion  as  the  Court  shall  adjudge. 

"  And  it  is  also  ordered,  that  the  said  persons  shall  survey 
all  the  laws  and  orders  already  made,  and  reduce  them  into 
as  few  heads  as  they  may,  and  present  them  unto  the  General 
Court  for  approbation  or  refusal,  as  aforesaid."  l 

In  taking  a  general  survey  of  the  condition  of  the  colony, 
resulting  from  all  of  its  action,  in  repression  and  otherwise, 
we  are  forced  to  admit  that  its  course  in  the  matter  of  good 
government,  and  its  suppression  of  intruders  included,  had 
the  effect  to  draw  emigrants,  for  three  thousand  settlers 
were  attracted ;  no  other  colony  had  anything  like  such 
prosperity.  This  seeming  public  commendation  goes  far  to 
vindicate  the  wisdom  and  political  sagacity  of  the  Puritans 
of  Massachusetts,  if  the  growth  and  magnitude  of  a  colony 
are  the  surest  indications  of  successful  planting,  as  they  are 
usually  regarded.  No  doubt  the  great  increase  in  popula 
tion  was  due  very  much  to  the  disturbed  political  and  reli 
gious  forces  in  England ;  but  when  the  unhappy  people 
looked  across  the  sea  for  an  asylum,  they  evidently  regarded 
Massachusetts  as  the  land  of  strong  and  safe  government, 
the  abode  of  law  and  order,  the  one  spot  in  all  the  world 
where  English  scholars,  who  had  lost  confidence  in  their  own 
institutions  and  rulers,  were  beginning  to  rally  and  to  experi 
ment  on  virgin  soil,  with  new  ideals  of  government. 

It  was  in  fact  the  inauguration  of  a  new  era  of  liberty  in 
the  world.  Mather  informs  us  that  "  It  was  for  a  matter  of 
twelve  years  together,  that  persons  of  all  ranks,  well  affected 
unto  church  reformation,  kept  sometimes  dropping,  and  some 
times  flocking  unto  New  England,  though  some  that  were 
coming  into  New  England  were  not  suffered  to  do  so.  ... 
Among  those  bound  for  New  England,  that  were  so  stopt, 
1  Mass.  Col.  Rec.,  i.  222. 


250  THOMAS   DUDLEY  [CH.  xxm 

there  were  especially  three  famous  persons,  whom  I  suppose 
their  adversaries  would  not  have  so  studiously  detained  at 
home,  if  they  had  foreseen  events  ;  those  were  Oliver  Crom 
well  and  Mr.  Hampden,1  and  Sir  Arthur  Haselrig."  2 

Mr.  James  Grahame,  in  his  history  of  the  United  States, 
adds  the  name  of  Pym  to  this  roll  of  notable  persons.  It 
will  always  afford  a  very  interesting  and  striking,  but  useless 
subject  for  human  speculation,  how  the  course  of  events  in 
both  England  and  America  would  have  turned,  if  those 
master  minds  of  the  English  commonwealth  had  really  emi 
grated  and  found  here  useful  occupation  in  subduing  forests 
and  Christianizing  savages.  James  Russell  Lowell  has  given 
to  us  in  a  beautiful  poem  the  supposed  thoughts  of  these 
two  men,  Hampden  and  Cromwell,  as  they  were  deeply  con 
sidering  whether  the  cause  of  human  freedom  would  be  most 
served  by  their  emigration  to  America  or  by  their  remaining 
to  aid  the  coming  revolution  in  England. 

"  The  fate  of  England  and  of  freedom  once 
Seemed  wavering  in  the  heart  of  one  plain  man  : 
One  step  of  his,  and  the  great  dial-hand, 
That  marks  the  destined  progress  of  the  world 
In  the  eternal  round  from  wisdom  on 
To  higher  wisdom,  had  been  made  to  pause 
A  hundred  years.     That  step  he  did  not  take,  — 
He  knew  not  why,  nor  we,  but  only  God,  — 
And  lived  to  make  his  simple  oaken  chair 
More  terrible  and  grandly  beautiful, 
More  full  of  majesty  than  any  throne, 
Before  or  after,  of  a  British  king."  8 

It  is  important  to  mention  in  this  connection  that  modern 
investigators,  who  seem  determined  upon  destroying  the  very 
fabric  of  history  itself,  have  not  overlooked  this  beautiful 
story,  but  have  found  occasion  to  doubt  it  altogether. 

1  Hampden,  Winthrop,  and  Dudley  were  the  executors  of  the  will  of 
Isaac  Johnson,  also  of  one  before  the  last  one,  a  fact  which  suggests 
their  intimate  relations.     (Mass.  Hist.  Coll.,  3d  series,  viii.  244 ;  Hutch- 
inson,  i.  16.) 

2  Mather's  Magnalia,  i.  bk.  i.  §  7,  p.  73. 

8  Lowell's  "  A  Glance  Behind  the  Curtain,"  Poems,  Household  ed.,  49. 


1638]  THE   TWO   BROTHERS  251 

Winthrop  was  chosen  governor  and  Dudley  deputy  gov 
ernor  in  May,  1638.  This  was  no  doubt  an  era  of  excellent 
good  feeling ;  popular  enthusiasm  and  approval  abounded, 
for  the  Court  at  that  very  session  enacted  as  follows :  "  It  is 
ordered,  by  this  present  Court,  that  John  Winthrop,  Esq., 
the  present  governor,  shall  have  twelve  hundred  acres  of 
land,  whereof  one  thousand  was  formerly  granted  him,  and 
Thomas  Dudley,  Esq.,  the  deputy  governor,  his  one  thou 
sand  acres  granted  to  him  by  a  former  Court,  both  of  them 
about  six  miles  from  Concord,  northward ;  the  said  governor 
to  have  his  twelve  hundred  acres  on  the  southerly  side  of 
two  great  stones,  standing  near  together,  close  by  the  river 
side  that  comes  from  Concord,  and  the  deputy  governor  to 
have  his  thousand  acres  on  the  northerly  side  of  the  said 
two  great  stones,  (which  stones  were  lately  named  the  Two 
Brothers)."  1 

Those  very  stones  remain  there  in  the  town  of  Bedford, 
little  changed,  and  the  Bedford  Historical  Society,  in  1894, 
cut  in  large  letters  the  name  of  Winthrop  in  the  stone  which 
was,  in  1638,  next  to  his  land,  and  in  the  same  manner  the 
name  of  Dudley  in  the  other  stone,  with  the  same  date, 
1638,  and  thus  Winthrop  and  Dudley  here  confront  each 
other.2  This  society,  which  has  placed  the  inscriptions  on 
these  ancient  landmarks,  is  justly  entitled  to  public  grati 
tude.  This  spot  is  of  deeper  interest  possibly  than  we  at 
first  suspect.  Winthrop  has  left  in  his  Journal  the  follow 
ing  :  "  The  governor  [Winthrop]  and  deputy  [Dudley]  went 
to  Concord  [April  24,  1638]  to  view  some  land  for  farms, 
and,  going  down  the  river  about  four  miles,  they  made  choice 
of  a  place  for  one  thousand  acres  for  each  of  them.  They 
offered  each  other  the  first  choice,  but  because  the  deputy's 
was  first  granted,  and  himself  had  store  of  land  already,  the 
governor  yielded  him  the  choice.  So,  at  the  place  where 
the  deputy's  land  was  to  begin,  there  were  two  great  stones, 

1  Mass.  Col.  Rec.,  i.  229. 

2  For  an  account  of  the    Two  Brothers,  see  Henry  A.  Hazen's 
Hist,  of  Billerica,  4,  5,  10. 


252  THOMAS   DUDLEY  [CH.  xxm 

which  they  called  the  '  Two  Brothers,'  in  remembrance  that 
they  were  brothers  by  their  children's  marriage,  and  did  so 
brotherly  agree,  and  for  that  a  little  creek  near  those  stones 
was  to  part  their  lands."  : 

The  Hon.  Robert  C.  Winthrop  has  written  his  own  grace 
ful  and  beautiful  impression  of  this  event.  "  Certainly  it 
was  a  felicitous  coincidence  that  Concord  should  have  been 
the  scene  of  this  charming  exhibition  of  mutual  concession 
and  fraternal  love.  Since  the  quarrel  of  Brutus  and  Cassius, 
which  Shakspeare  has  rendered  so  memorable  in  his  immor 
tal  dialogue,  it  would  be  difficult  to  find  one  more  vividly 
described  or  more  happily  ended.  Who  would  undertake  to 
reopen  the  record  in  order  to  decide  who  was  right  and  who 
was  wrong  in  such  a  disagreement  ?  Let  it  stand,  without 
mutilation  and  without  commentary,  as  a  beautiful  illustra 
tion  of  the  manner  in  which  two  of  the  fathers  of  New 
England  conducted  the  controversies  which  sometimes 
sprung  up  among  them.  There  were  no  challenges  to  per 
sonal  combat.  '  They  were  angry  but  sinned  not.'  .  .  . 
The  contentious  statesmen  of  modern  times  may  well  take 
an  example  from  this  early  chapter  of  New  England  history, 
and  this  original  record  of  New  England  controversy."  2 

A  lovely  scene  is  spread  out  before  you,  as  you  stand  be 
side  the  "  Two  Brothers,"  and  look  up  and  down  the  Con 
cord  River.8  Far  up,  the  river  is  obstructed  by  a  beautiful 

1  Winthrop,  i.  ^264. 

z  R.  C.  Winthrop's  Life  and  Letters  of  John  Winthrop,  ii.  101,  102. 

3  Nathaniel  Hawthorne  knew  this  river  well  and  loved  it  dearly.  He 
has  left  to  us  the  following  description  of  it  in  one  of  his  own  classic 
pictures  :  "  We  stand  now  on  the  river's  brink.  It  may  well  be  called 
the  Concord,  the  river  of  peace  and  quietness ;  for  it  is  certainly  the 
most  unexcitable  and  sluggish  stream  that  ever  loitered  imperceptibly 
towards  its  eternity  —  the  sea.  Positively,  I  had  lived  three  weeks 
beside  it  before  it  grew  quite  clear  to  my  perception  which  way  the 
current  flowed.  It  never  has  a  vivacious  aspect,  except  when  a  north 
western  breeze  is  vexing  its  surface  on  a  sunshiny  day.  From  the 
incurable  indolence  of  its  nature,  the  stream  is  happily  incapable  of 
becoming  the  slave  of  human  ingenuity  as  is  the  fate  of  so  many  a  wild, 
free  mountain  torrent.  ...  It  slumbers  between  broad  prairies,  kissing 


1638}  LABOR,    WAGES,   AND   PRICES  253 

bridge  with  many  arches,  while  below,  after  a  long  sweep  by 
the  winding  of  its  course  it  disappears.  Across  the  stream 
the  view  stretches  away  over  boundless  meadows  to  the 
broken  lines  of  distant  hills. 

One  hundred  and  thirty  years  subsequent  to  this  memora 
ble  visit  of  the  two  most  eminent  planters  of  New  England, 
but  a  few  miles  nearer  towards  the  source  of  this  stream, 

"  The  embattled  farmers  stood, 
And  fired  the  shot  heard  round  the  world." 

Labor,  wages,  and  prices  perplexed  and  embarrassed  the 
colony,  as  in  modern  life  they  vex  society,  and  as  during  long 
ages  to  come  they  are  destined  to  disturb  the  social  life  of 
nations.  "  Whereas  there  hath  been  divers  complaints  made 
concerning  oppression  in  wages,  in  prices  of  commodities,  in 
smith's  work,  in  excessive  prices  for  the  work  of  drafts  [mov 
ing  loads  by  drawing],  and  teams  and  the  like,  to  the  great 
dishonor  of  God,  the  scandal  of  the  gospel  and  the  grief  of 
divers  of  God's  people,  both  here  in  this  land  and  in  the 
land  of  our  nativity,  the  Court  taking  into  consideration,  hath 
ordered  it,  that  it  shall  be  duly  considered  by  Mr.  Endicott 
[and  others  constituting  a  committee  of  about  thirty  per 
sons],  whom  the  Court  hath  desired  in  that  particular,  and 
to  bring  into  the  next  General  Court  their  thoughts,  for  the 
remedying  of  the  same."  1 

Captain  Robert  Keayne,  who  was  the  first  commander  of 
the  Ancient  and  Honorable  Artillery  of  Boston,  and  whose 
unworthy  son,  Benjamin,  was  the  husband  of  Dudley's  daugh 
ter  Sarah,  was  disciplined  both  by  church  and  state  for  sell 
ing  his  merchandise  at  excessive  profits.  He  left  a  will, 
very  many  pages  of  which  are  devoted  to  the  proper  vindica- 

the  long  meadow  grass,  and  bathes  the  overhanging  boughs  of  elder 
bushes  and  willows  or  the  roots  of  elms,  and  ash  trees  and  clumps  of 
maples.  Flags  and  rushes  grow  along  its  plashy  shores ;  the  yellow 
water-lily  spreads  its  broad,  flat  leaves  on  the  margin ;  and  the  fragrant 
white  pond-lily  abounds."  (Hawthorne's  Mosses  from  an  Old  Manse, 
chap.  i.  14.) 
1  March  12,  1638.  Mass.  Col.  Rec.,  i.  223. 


254  THOMAS   DUDLEY  [CH.  xxm 

tion  of  himself  and  his  character,  appealing  to  the  serious 
and  unbiased  reflections  of  mankind. 

Dudley  and  Captain  Keayne  were  both  military  men,  for 
which  reason,  and  because  of  the  intermarriage  of  their  chil 
dren,  we  may  confidently  suppose  them  to  have  been  friends, 
at  any  rate  until  the  subsequent  unhappiness  of  their  chil 
dren  ;  and  we  have  no  evidence  that  their  friendship  was  not 
well-established  and  permanent  to  the  end  of  life. 

The  General  Court,  in  June,  1639,  declared  the  now  famous 
Council  for  Life  to  have  no  power  of  judicature  whatever, 
nor  in  the  magistracy,  and  to  be  in  fact  ornamental  only.1 

The  General  Court  gave  its  attention  in  September  of  this 
year,  on  the  one  hand  to  superfluity  and  exuberance  in  dress, 
and  on  the  other  hand  to  its  improper  contraction  and  to 
its  reduction.  It  is  ordered  that  tailors  are  not  to  "  set  lace 
or  points  upon  any  garment.  And  that  hereafter  no  garment 
shall  be  made  with  short  sleeves,  whereby  the  nakedness  of 
the  arm  may  be  discovered  .  .  .  sleeves  not  to  be  more  than 
an  ell  in  the  widest  place,"  and  more  about  immoderate  great 
sleeves,  knots  of  ribbon,  broad  shoulder  bands,  double  ruf 
fles  and  cuffs. 

It  would  be  a  great  satisfaction  to  us  to  know  what  part 
Dudley  took  in  all  this  quaint  and  curious  legislation.  We 
know  that  he  was  present  and  took  a  share  at  all  the  meet 
ings  whose  records  have  claimed  our  attention,  but  whether 
he  voted  with  the  majority  in  favor  of  sumptuary  laws,  or 
was  hopelessly  lost  with  the  minority,  we  cannot  tell.  Since, 
however,  he  was  so  popular,  and  retained  the  places  of  first 
importance  among  the  people  so  many  years,  it  is  reasonable 
to  conclude  that  in  general  he  was  with  the  majority,  and 
that  his  personal  influence  went  as  far  as  that  of  any  one  in 
directing  on  which  side  the  majority  would  be  found,  upon 
every  question  before  the  Court.  This  in  any  event  matters 
but  little  ;  the  decision  arrived  at  included  the  majority  and 
minority ;  all  members  are  therefore  equally  entitled  to  the 
credit  or  dishonor  of  each  and  every  act.  No  one  can  go 
1  Mass.  Col.  Rec.,  i.  264. 


1639]         IMPROVED   ROADS   AND    INTERCOURSE          255 

behind  the  curtain  to  discover  individual  action,  and  to  fix 
individual  responsibility  ;  all  is  merged  in  the  final  recorded 
statute  or  judgment. 

They  ordered  at  this  September  Court  that  records  of  the 
doings  of  the  Court  should  be  carefully  kept,  also  of  probate 
matters,  marriages,  births,  deaths,  and  of  houses  and  lands. 

Improved  roads  and  the  means  of  cheap,  easy,  and  rapid 
transit  and  communication  between  one  part  of  a  state  and 
the  other  have  at  least,  since  the  construction  of  the  wonder 
ful  ancient  Roman  roads,  been  little  by  little  winning  the 
attention  and  confidence  of  men.  No  effort  now  is  required 
to  convince  intelligent  people  that  if  intercourse  and  com 
merce  through  the  agencies  of  the  air,  water,  steam,  electri 
city,  and  horse-power  were  extinguished,  a  very  short  period 
would  show  a  rapid  relapse  towards  that  night  of  barbarism 
from  which  we  have  slowly  emerged.  When  the  General 
Court,  therefore, -at  this  session  ordered  "that  all  highways 
shall  be  laid  out  before  the  next  meetings  of  the  Court,  so  as 
may  be  with  most  ease  and  safety  for  travelers,"  and  made 
provision  therefor,  it  had  moved  in  the  right  direction  to 
wards  the  development  of  the  colony  and  country.  It  would 
need  centuries  of  vigorous  labor  to  complete  only  a  portion 
of  this  herculean  undertaking,  but  then  and  there  the  work 
of  the  Titans  began,  and  it  required  only  the  improved  skill 
and  abounding  energy  of  the  coming  generations  of  intelli 
gent  freemen,  assisted,  indeed,  by  foreign  labor  and  capital, 
to  overlay  the  continent  with  highways  of  steel. 

Another  material  change  was  made  this  year  in  the  Court, 
transferring  important  judicial  powers  from  the  General 
Court  to  the  Court  of  Assistants  ;  county  courts  were  also 
created,  and  an  essential  advance  made  towards  the  system 
which  has  prevailed  ever  since.1 

We  have  previously  noticed  the  founding  of  Harvard  Col 
lege  and  the  connection  of  Dudley  with  it,  but  the  public 
system  of  education  of  the  whole  people  was  very  funda- 

1  Washburn's  Judicial  Hist,  of  Mass.,  27,  31 ;  Pub.  Narr.  Club,  ii. 
184. 


256  THOMAS   DUDLEY  [CH.  xxm 

mental  in  the  formation  of  our  government,  and  the  source 
from  which  it  was  principally  derived  was  the  college,  cou 
pled  with  the  watchful,  intelligent  purpose  of  the  founders. 
Educated  men  from  Oxford  and  Cambridge,  ministers  and 
others,  went  into  the  wilderness,  each  bearing  a  torch,  carry 
ing  the  gospel  and  the  saving  light  of  learning  to  the  remot 
est  and  ever-extending  boundaries  of  the  colony.  This  was 
the  seed-sowing  for  a  government  of  the  people,  in  which 
sovereign  people  must  be  educated  in  virtue,  and  trained  in 
everything  which  contributes  to  true  nobility  of  character. 
The  common  school  was  produced  by  spread  of  learning 
from  the  college  to  the  people,  and  therefore  we  are  not  to 
regard  the  university  as  the  product  of  the  common  schools, 
but  as  being  itself  in  a  large  degree  the  source  and  fountain 
of  such  schools  in  our  system.  This  thought  ought  very 
much  to  awaken  our  appreciation  of  the  foresight  and  saga 
city  of  the  fathers  of  New  England,  who  took  the  first  weld 
ing  heat  on  our  institutions,  and  began  by  founding  a  college. 

The  printing  press,  moreover,  came  to  Cambridge  in  1639, 
by  far  the  most  powerful  engine  in  the  general  distribution 
of  knowledge.  Here  they  were  together,  the  college  and 
the  press,  on  the  extreme  eastern  shore  of  the  continent, 
beginning  to  force  "westward  the  course"  of  democratic 
republican  empire. 

"The  earliest  effort  of  the  Cambridge  press,  apparently, 
was  to  print  in  1639  the  oath  required  from  all  freemen.  In 
the  next  year  the  so-called  Bay  Psalm-Book  was  printed.  .  .  . 
The  Almanac,  which  from  1639  was  an  annual  production, 
was  as  yet  nothing  more  than  a  bare  calendar,  with  blank 
spaces  to  serve  as  a  diary.  With  the  next  generation  it  took 
higher  rank,  and  may  in  fact  be  looked  on  as  the  earliest  form 
of  light  literature  recognized  in  New  England."  1 

This  year  Dudley  changed  his  residence  to  Roxbury, 
which  was  his  home  during  the  remainder  of  his  life.  Cot 
ton  Mather  gives  the  reasons  for  this  change,  as  follows : 
"  The  country  soon  found  a  need  of  his  wisdom  to  help  to 
1  Doyle's  The  English  in  America,  ii.  119,  120. 


1638]  DUDLEY'S    LETTER  TO   COTTON  257 

strengthen  them  in  that  storm  of  trouble  that  began  to  arise 
immediately  after  his  removal  [to  Ipswich  in  1635],  so  as 
the  necessity  of  the  government  and  importunity  of  friends, 
enforced  him  to  return  back  two  or  three  years  after  his 
going  away.  The  town  he  returned  unto  was  called  Rox- 
bury,  within  two  miles  of  Boston,  where  he  was  near  at  hand 
to  be  counseled  or  advised  with  in  any  exigency ;  divers  of 
which  did  presently  appear,  after  his  return ;  of  him  it  was 
verified  what  the  poet  said,  'Virtutem  presentem  odimus, 
sublatam  ex  oculis  quaerimus  invitis.'  "  l 

The  following  letter  of  Thomas  Dudley  to  Rev.  John  Cot 
ton  shows  what  perplexing  questions  disturbed  the  souls  of 
the  founders  :  — 

REVEREND  SIR,  —  I  appointed  my  brother  Dennison,  the 
bearer  hereof,  to  have  been  with  me  at  the  Court  at  Boston, 
about  what  I  now  write,  but  it  fell  out  otherwise.  The  up 
rightness  I  perceive  to  be  in  him  stirreth  me  up  to  desire 
his  reconciliation  to  the  Church,  and  one  thing  that  hin- 
dereth  is  his  opinion  about  the  first  evidence :  He  grant eth 
that  the  Spirit  can  give  no  first  evidence  without  it  work 
grace,  and  I  assent  that  there  can  be  no  grace  until  the 
Spirit  work  it,  which  agreeth  with  what  passed  at  my  house 
between  yourself  and  me :  therein  I  perceive  no  difference 
between  them.  But  when  these  premises  are  drawn  to  a 
conclusion,  then  he  draws  back  and  affirmeth  that  yet  the 
Spirit  gives  the  first  evidence  without  the  sight  of  grace. 

If  two  things  go  together  neither  of  which  is  first  or  last, 
and  if  the  Spirit  work  not  grace,  that  Spirit  is  delusory,  then 
I  cannot  know  it  to  be  the  Spirit  of  God  until  I  see  it  hath 
wrought  them  even,  for  evidence  (about  which  the  question 
is)  implieth  sight  within  the  signification  and  ordinary  use  of 
the  word  :  I  am  not  able  to  see  but  that  he  contradicteth 
himself. 

If  you  so  conceive  I  pray  you,  Sir,  help  him.    This  I  would 

1  See  Horace,  bk.  in.  ode  24;  Proc.  Mass.  Hist.  Soc.,  Jan.  1870, 
219,  220. 


258  THOMAS   DUDLEY  [CH.  xxm 

this  day  have  spoken  to  you  if  I  had  not  been  hindered  :  you 
see  how  bad  my  page  is,  and  it  is  time  for  the  bearer  to  be 
gone  towards  Boston. 

I  pray  you  bear  with  hasty,  page,  &c.  I  shall  understand 
by  my  Bro :  Dennison  at  his  return  without  your  trouble 
of  writing  what  you  say.  I  therefore  forbear  your  further 
trouble,  resting  — 

Your  old  unprofitable  friend, 

THO  :  DUDLEY. 
ROXBURY  the  21  of  the  i  Month  I638.1 

We  are  quite  certain  that  the  Brother  Dennison  mentioned 
in  this  letter  was  William  Dennison,  constable  of  Roxbury, 
whose  son,  Daniel  Dennison,  had  married  Dudley's  daughter, 
Patience.  We  know  that  it  was  the  custom  to  call  each 
other  brothers  when  their  children  intermarried.  Dennison 
was  disarmed  with  other  Hutchinsonians,  November  20, 
i637,2and  in  1639,  June  4,  "had  liberty  till  the  next  Court." 
This  explains  Dudley's  interest  in  Dennison.  The  letter 
above  was  written  while  Dennison  was  disarmed ;  it  is  about 
grace  and  other  Antinomian  doctrine,  and  bears  its  own 
evidence  of  the  cause  which  produced  it.  The  beautiful 
altruism  of  Dudley  is  manifested  in  the  concluding  lines  of 
the  letter. 

It  has  also  been  said  that  Dudley  "  removed  to  Roxbury 
to  place  himself  under  the  ministration  of  Eliot,"  the  apostle 
to  the  Indians  ;  their  houses  were  on  opposite  sides  of  the 
same  street,  and,  also,  under  the  ministration  of  Mr.  Weld, 
they  were  associated  in  the  same  church.  "The  Dudley 
homestead,  containing  between  five  and  six  acres,  lay  be 
tween  what  are  now  Washington  and  Bartlett  streets,  on 
the  south,  and  Roxbury  Street,  on  the  north,  extending  from 
Guild  Row  to  Putnam  Street,  the  eastern  boundary  of  the 

1  The  original  of  this  letter  is  in  the  Boston  Public  Library,  Prince 
Collection,  Cotton  Papers,  S.  21-1,  ii.  15. 

The  letter  was  written  about  the  time  that  Dudley  removed  from 
Ipswich  to  Roxbury,  and  is  for  that  reason  inserted  here. 

2  Mass.  Col.  Rec.,  i.  212. 


1639]  DUDLEY'S   HOME   IN   ROXBURY  259 

land  of  the  First  Parish.  Smelt  Brook  was  originally  the 
eastern  boundary  of  the  homestead." 1 

The  house  and  home  of  Dudley  was  on  the  site  long  occu 
pied  by  the  First  Universalist  Church ;  his  well  is  said  to 
have  been  under  it.2  This  was  the  house  on  which  Dudley, 
in  1646,  secured  a  perpetual  tribute  to  the  Roxbury  Latin 
School  at  its  foundation.3  Drake,  the  historian  of  Roxbury, 
assures  us  that  "  in  its  day  this  was  one  of  the  best  houses 
in  the  town.  .  .  .  And  that  we  may  be  certain  that  during 
the  entire  colonial  period  no  New  England  mansion  enter 
tained  a  larger  number  of  visitors  of  distinction."  Here,  in 
the  next  year,  1640,  when  Dudley  was  governor,  he  well 
entertained  "the  brave  and  magnanimous  Miantonomoh,  the 
Sachem  of  Narragansett."  Perhaps  we  ought  to  say,  on  the 
authority  of  the  United  Colonies,  the  treacherous  Miantono 
moh.4 

We  are  admitted  into  the  interior  of  this  Roxbury  home, 
and  with  lively  interest  pass  from  room  to  room,  and  are 
informed  what  furniture  and  personal  effects  once  used  by 
these  excellent  people  were  found  in  the  various  apartments, 
including  two  parlors,  a  parlor  chamber,  a  hall  chamber, 
study,  and  other  rooms.  The  library  attracts  us  in  the 
study.  Here,  more  than  in  any  other  room,  we  seem  to 
feel  the  presence  and  the  personality  of  "  the  sturdiest  sup 
port  and  ornament  of  New  England,"  the  pillar  of  church 
and  state.  The  library  of  a  person,  selected  by  himself, 
with  the  means  given  to  him  to  exercise  his  taste  and  choice 
from  time  to  time,  becomes  in  a  sense  the  mirror  of  his 
mind,  culture,  and  development.  To  this  end,  the  number 
of  books  is  far  less  important  than  the  quality.  A  few  books 
and  much  reflection  have  been  the  means  and  method  of  the 
giants  of  learning. 

1  Francis  S.  Drake's  Town  of  Roxbury,  238. 

2  The  church  was  burned  a  few  years  ago,  and  now  small  shops  in 
part  occupy  the  site. 

8  C.  M.  Ellis's  Hist,  of  Roxbury,  39. 
*  Winthrop,  ii.  *8,*is. 


2<5o  THOMAS   DUDLEY  [CH.  xxm 

The  first  book  on  his  list  but  one  is  the  "  General  His 
tory  of  the  Netherlands."  The  Netherlands,  more  than  any 
other  country  except  their  native  land,  and  Geneva,  had 
contributed  to  the  Puritan  ideas  of  liberty,  education,  and 
religion.  This  book,  next  to  the  Bible,  the  laws  of  Moses 
and  dealings  of  the  Almighty  with  ancient  Israel,  may  have 
been  his  constant  study,  his  morning  and  evening  text-book 
and  guide.  The  "  Turkish  History  "  indicated  breadth  and 
liberality  in  reading  and  investigation.  His  copy  of  the 
"reserved  and  thoughtful"  Tacitus  denotes  his  vigorous 
and  classical  taste,  respecting  which  Cotton  Mather  has  in 
formed  us.  Camden's  "Annals  of  Queen  Elizabeth"  would 
be  of  personal  interest  to  him  because  he  was  an  English 
man  ;  because,  also,  he  had  been  a  subject  during  her  reign, 
and  had  gone  as  a  soldier  to  France,  bearing  her  commis 
sion  ;  besides,  the  book  itself  reflects  credit  on  its  owner, 
even  if  it  was  unreliable  as  to  Queen  Mary  of  Scotland,  and 
too  favorable  to  Elizabeth.  Selden  has  declared  that  "  Cam- 
den's  'Annals  of  Elizabeth'  and  Bacon's  'History  of  Henry 
VII.'  are  the  only  two  Lives  of  the  sovereigns  of  England 
which  come  up  to  the  dignity  of  the  subject,  either  in  full 
ness  of  matter  or  beauty  of  composition." 

The  "  Commentaries  of  the  Wars  of  France  "  doubtless 
included  the  war  in  which  his  father  died,  and  in  which  he 
himself  had  a  part  in  the  struggle  of  Henry  IV.  of  France. 
Scotland  also  was  dear  to  the  Puritan  heart,  because  Pres- 
byterianism  triumphed  there,  both  over  papacy  and  at  last 
over  prelacy.  George  Buchanan  also  was  unfavorable  to' 
Mary,  Queen  of  Scots,  but  his  "  History  of  Scotland  "  was 
a  famous  book.  "  It  cannot  be  denied  but  Buchanan  was 
a  man  of  admirable  eloquence,  of  rare  prudence,  and  of 
exquisite  judgment ;  he  has  written  the  history  of  Scot 
land  with  such  elegance  and  politeness  that  he  surpasses 
all  the  writers  of  his  age  ;  and  he  has  even  equaled  the  an 
cients  themselves,  without  excepting  either  Sallust  or  Titus 
Livius."  1 

1  Teissier. 


1639]  DUDLEY'S    HOME   IN   ROXBURY  261 

As  Dudley  was  himself  a  lawmaker,  "  An  Abstract  of  Pe 
nal  Statutes  "  must  have  been  to  him  a  useful  book  ;  besides, 
he  was  very  much  of  a  lawyer.  But  what  was  the  signifi 
cance  of  "  Piers  Plowman"  in  this  library,  a  satire  upon 
church  and  state  ?  It  was  indeed  very  marked.  For  that 
book  contains,  in  epitome  and  outline,  the  doctrines  which 
produced  the  Reformation,  and  no  man  of  his  period  was 
more  strongly  imbued  with  those  teachings,  extended  even 
to  the  perfection  of  Puritanism,  than  he. 

It  represents  a  literary  and  political  revolution  in  which 
the  Saxon  is  over  the  Norman.  And  the  battle  won  at 
Hastings  was  lost  at  Marston  Moor.  The  victorious  Saxon 
was  uppermost  alike  in  the  commonwealth  of  England  and 
in  the  other  one  of  Massachusetts.  One  of  the  principal 
founders  of  the  last,  moreover,  was  the  student  who  in  this 
library  daily  and  constantly  sought  light  and  wisdom  upon 
his  responsible  work.  Campbell  says  that  "the  general 
obj  ect  of  *  Piers  Plowman '  is  to  expose,  in  allegory,  the 
existing  abuses  of  society,  and  to  inculcate  the  public  and 
private  duties  both  of  the  laity  and  clergy."  No  man  in  all 
the  world  had  these  things  more  at  heart,  and  no  man  had 
therefore  a  better  right  to  the  perpetual  companionship  with 
Piers  Plowman,  than  our  honored  governor. 

We  find  in  this  room,  also,  the  writings  of  Calvin,  Cotton, 
Rogers,  and  Norton ;  books  on  history,  law,  theology,  reli 
gion,  and  education.  Every  one  of  these  books  has  an 
essential  characteristic  of  himself  in  it,  and  is  in  the  library 
because  of  his  own  exceeding  need.  His  greatness  and  lib 
erality  of  mind  are  reflected  in  the  quality  of  these  silent 
friends  and  associates. 

A  list  of  Dudley's  books  —  there  were  fifty  or  sixty  vol 
umes  inventoried  at  his  decease  —  is  to  be  found  in  the  Suf 
folk  Probate  Records,  lib.  ii.  fol.  133;  Hist.  Gen.  Reg.,  xii. 
33 5>  336  ;  also  Dean  Dudley's  Hist,  of  the  Dudley  Family, 
i.  84,  85. 

The  Rev.  Nathaniel  Rogers  wrote  of  Dudley  :  "  A  devourer 
of  books,  in  himself  a  choice  collector,  a  compend  of  sacred 


262  THOMAS   DUDLEY  [CH.  xxm 

history."  Captain  Edward  Johnson  says,  in  "Wonder- 
Working  Providence,"  that  he  was  "a  man  of  sound  judg 
ment  in  matters  of  religion,  and  well  read,  bestowing  much 
labor  that  way."  l  His  daughter,  Mrs.  Bradstreet,  records 
that  he  was  "  a  magazine  of  history." 

"  The  old  mansion  was  razed  to  the  ground  a  few  days 
after  the  battle  of  Bunker  Hill,  and  its  brick  basement  walls, 
facing  north  and  east,  made  the  angle  of  the  work  that  was 
erected  by  the  Americans.  The  intrenchments  at  this  point 
included  the  garden,  and  extended  to  the  hill  east  of  the 
meeting-house."  2 

If  the  glorious  old  Saxon  was  permitted  to  witness  that 
desolation  of  his  home  and  hearth,  that  invincible  spirit 
which  inspired  his  life  work  responded,  Grind  it  as  fine  as 
dust  to  construct  bulwarks  to  resist  the  tyranny  of  the  Brit 
ish  throne  and  defend  American  liberty ! 

It  is  mentioned  in  the  "  Memorial  History  of  Boston  "  that 
"  by  far  the  most  eminent  citizen  of  colonial  Roxbury  was 
Thomas  Dudley,  founder  of  a  family  that  furnished  two 
governors,  a  chief  justice,  and  a  speaker  of  the  House,  all 
o.f  whom  played  conspicuous  parts  in  the  affairs  of  New 
England."  3 

His  daughter,  Anne  Bradstreet,  distinguished,  as  we  have 
before  remarked,  as  the  earliest  poet  of  her  sex  in  America, 
herself  the  ancestor  of  at  least  two  eminent  poets,  is  worthy 
to  be  named  among  the  celebrated  members  of  that  family. 
Her  volume  of  poetry  was  the  first  published  in  America. 

1  Podle's  ed.,  52. 

2  F.  S.  Drake's  Roxbury,  237. 

8  Memorial  Hist.  Boston,  i.  417. 


CHAPTER  XXIV 

AN  extensive  reorganization  of  the  courts  was  made 
between  1636  and  1640.  It  seems  that  previous  to  that  time 
the  General  Court  had  exercised  the  whole  powers,  both 
legislative  and  judicial,  throughout  the  colony,  and  had  juris 
diction  both  in  civil  and  criminal  cases.  But  now  county 
courts  were  created,  which  have  continued,  with  change  of 
names,  to  the  present  time.  The  principal  judicial  powers 
of  the  General  Court  were  transferred  to  the  Court  of  Assist 
ants. 

The  county  courts  were  held  by  one  or  more  of  the  assist 
ants  or  magistrates  who  resided  in  the  county  where  the 
court  was  to  sit,  or  by  magistrates  appointed  from  time  to 
time  by  the  General  Court,  aided  by  commissioners  who  were 
nominated  by  the  freemen  of  the  county  and  appointed  by 
the  General  Court.  The  commissioners  and  magistrates 
were  to  be  five  in  number ;  but  three  of  them,  if  one  were  a 
magistrate,  were  competent  to  hold  a  court.  This  court  had 
no  jurisdiction  in  matters  of  divorce,  of  life  and  limb,  or 
banishment.1 

Although  they  denied  all  rights  of  appeal  to  England  from 
their  courts,  and  insisted  upon  this  with  great  firmness,  yet 
they  manifested  their  loyalty  to  the  throne  in  many  ways. 
The  following  is  an  instance  of  it :  "  Further,  it  is  ordered 
that,  in  all  the  aforesaid  places  of  judicature,  the  King's 
Majesties  arms  shall  be  erected  so  soon  as  they  can  be 
had."2 

Dudley  was  constantly  a  magistrate  during  all  this  con- 

1  Mass.  Col.  Rec.,  i.  175,  169;  Washburn's  Judicial  Hist,  of  Mass., 

27,  3i»  37- 

2  Mass.  Col.  Rec.,  i.  175. 


264  THOMAS   DUDLEY  [CH.  xxiv 

structive  period  of  the  courts,  and  both  long  before  and  long 
after.  His.  handiwork  is  in  it  all.  He  not  only  executed 
the  laws  and  interpreted  them  with  his  associates,  but  with 
them  he  also  created  the  laws,  since  they  were  together  the 
legislative  body  of  Massachusetts.1 

As  we  have  already  noticed,  the  people  were  anxious 
because  there  was  no  general  system  of  laws.  Although  the 
laws  of  England  were  supposed  to  be  the  authority  on  which 
sentences  were  grounded,  yet  it  was  felt  that  far  too  much 
was  left  to  the  authority  and  discretion  of  the  courts.  For 
this  reason  steps  were  taken  in  1635  as  follows  :  "The  gov 
ernor  [John  Haynes],  the  deputy  governor  [Richard  Bel- 
lingham],  John  Winthrop  and  Thomas  Dudley,  Esquires, 
are  deputed  by  the  Court  to  make  a  draught  of  such  laws  as 
they  shall  judge  useful  for  the  well  ordering  of  this  planta 
tion,  and  to  present  the  same  to  the  Court."2 

The  first  thing  that  attracts  our  notice  in  this  act  is  the 
prominent  position  given  to  Dudley  and  a  few  other  men  in 
the  constructive  work  in  law-making.  He  is  everywhere 
present  at  the  laying  of  the  foundation  of  Massachusetts 
and  her  laws.  This  is  confirmed  by  the  fact  that  Dudley 
was  a  member  of  a  similar  committee  appointed  in  1636, 
1637,  and  another  in  1639,  which  was  directed  to  peruse  all 
those  models  which  have  been,  or  shall  be,  further  presented 
to  this  Court,  or  to  themselves,  concerning  a  form  of  govern 
ment  and  laws  to  be  established,  and  shall  draw  them  up. 
And  although  these  committees  have  left  little  or  nothing 
on  record  of  their  labors,  and  there  are  some  reasons  to  sup 
pose  that  the  magistrates  and  elders  were  inclined  to  delay 
the  framing  of  a  code  of  laws,  yet  an  advance  was  made, 
for  at  the  General  Court,  May  13,  1640,  it  was  voted : 
"  Whereas  a  Breviate  of  Laws  was  formally  sent  forth  to  be 
considered  by  the  elders  of  the  churches  and  other  freemen 
of  the  commonwealth,  it  is  now  desired  that  they  will  en 
deavor  to  ripen  their  thoughts  and  counsels  about  the  same 

1  Mass.  Col.  Rec.,  i.  117,  n8. 
*  Ib.,  i.  147- 


1636-41]  THE   BODY   OF   LIBERTIES  265 

by  the  General  Court  in  the  next  Eighth  Month."  This 
refers  to  Mr.  Ward's  Body  of  Liberties,  which  became  the 
foundation  of  the  laws  of  Massachusetts,  not,  however,  until 
it  had  been  referred  to  the  people  and  improved  by  amend 
ments  at  the  General  Court,  in  which  Dudley,  with  others, 
took  an  active  part. 

The  reason  why  the  magistrates  had  been  careful  about 
establishing  regular  statutes  was  the  fear  that  their  enemies 
would  censure  them  and  attempt  to  prove  the  statutes  re 
pugnant  to  the  laws  of  England,  and  thus  give  them  new 
cause  to  expect  foreign  interference.  But  if  their  laws  were 
merely  the  interpretations  of  customs  which  arose  step  by 
step  in  the  development  of  the  country,  they  would  attract 
less  notice  and  have  greater  stability  than  theoretical  codes 
of  laws. 

There  were  two  models  of  laws  prepared :  one  by  the  Rev. 
John  Cotton,  supported 'by  texts  of  Scripture,  the  other  by 
the  Rev.  Nathaniel  Ward,  who  was  not  only  a  clergyman 
but  a  lawyer  who  had  practiced  in  the  courts  of  the  common 
law  in  England;  and  since  the  Bible  was  accounted  the 
supreme  law  of  the  land,  it  gave  him  a  great  advantage  to 
have  been  educated  thoroughly  in  both  professions.  Ward's 
model  was  soon  found  to  be  of  greater  practical  use  and 
advantage,  and  in  December,  1641,  three  weeks  were  em 
ployed  by  the  General  Court  in  considering  his  system, 
which,  with  amendments,  as  we  have  said,  was  adopted  as 
the  Body  of  Liberties  of  the  Massachusetts  Colony.  "  This," 
Bancroft  says,  "for  its  liberality  and  comprehensiveness, 
may  vie  with  any  similar  record  from  the  days  of  Magna 
Charta."  He  says  further,  these  laws  "  exhibit  the  truest 
picture  of  the  principles,  character,  and  intentions  of  that 
people  and  the  best  evidence  of  its  vigor  and  self-defense." 

A  few  features  of  these  laws  are  worthy  of  special  notice, 
as  indicating  real  progress  in  government  and  individual 
freedom. 

The  representatives  to  the  General  Court  were  to  serve 
but  one  year  unless  reflected.  The  Assembly  could  not  be 


266  THOMAS   DUDLEY  [CH.  xxiv 

dissolved  or  adjourned  without  the  will  of  the  majority. 
Every  town  had  power  of  self-government,  subject  to  the 
public  laws  of  the  country ;  power  also  to  choose  selectmen 
annually,  "to  order  the  prudential  occasions  of  the  town 
according  to  instructions  to  be  given  them  in  writing." 

This  town  government  has  since  been  recognized  as  the 
unit  in  our  system,  and  as  being  nearer  in  influence  and  in 
control  of  the  individual  citizen  than  the  state  government 
itself.  "  It  abolished  feudal  servitudes  of  the  soil,  children 
inherited  under  it  equally  the  property  of  intestate  parents, 
all  officers  were  annually  elected,  jury  trial  was  secured, 
married  women  were  protected,  fugitives  from  tyranny  or 
oppression  were  welcomed,  and  no  person  was  required  to 
pass  the  limits  of  the  plantation  in  an  offensive  war." 

The  capital  crimes,  which  were  then  under  the  English 
common  law  more  than  forty  in  number,  were  reduced  to 
twelve.  "  There  shall  never  be  any  bond  slaverie,  villinage, 
or  captivitie  amongst  us,  unless  it  be  lawful  captives  taken 
in  just  wars,  and  such  strangers  as  willingly  sell  themselves 
or  are  sold  to  us.  And  these  shall  have  all  the  liberties  and 
Christian  usages  which  the  law  of  God  established  in  Israel." 

Notwithstanding  this  provision,  slavery  continued  within 
the  commonwealth  down  to  1780.  Rights  of  person  and 
property  were- secured,  no  one  was  to  be  tried  twice  for  the 
same  offense,  public  records  were  open  to  inspection,  public 
money  was  only  to  be  disbursed  with  the  consent  of  the 
taxpayers,  cruel  punishments  were  forbidden,  judicial  pro 
ceedings  were  denned  and  the  privileges  and  duties  of 
freemen.  Elisha  Hutchinson  says  that  "  Mr.  Bellingham 
of  the  magistrates  and  Mr.  Cotton  of  the  clergy  had  the 
greatest  share  in  this  work."  We  have  seen  that  he  was' 
wrong  as  to  Cotton  ;  but  Bellingham  undoubtedly  served  on 
nearly  all  the  committees,  as  did  Winthrop  and  Dudley.1 

There  may  be  a  question  in  some  minds  why  the  Court 
in  1639  placed  the  important  service  of  producing  a  code  of 
laws  in  the  hands  of  two  persons,  Cotton  and  Ward,  instead 
i  William  H.  Whitmore's  Mass.  Col.  Laws,i8. 


1639]  THE   DRAMA   DISCARDED  267 

of  a  larger  committee,  and  that  the  commission  did  not  in 
clude  the  prominent  men,  Winthrop  and  Dudley.  As  in 
the  case  of  the  former  committees,  the  explanation  undoubt 
edly  is  that  they  recognized  that  small  committees  are  more 
efficient,  that  the  code  ought  to  be  the  work  of  one  mind,  to 
give  to  it  unity  and  symmetry  in  its  proportions,  and  greater 
vigor,  because  of  the  individual  responsibility  of  its  author. 
Dudley  was  occupied  fully  as  governor  during  most  of  the 
time  when  Ward  was  upon  this  work.  Both  he  and  Win 
throp  had  important  judicial  engagements,  as  appear  by  the 
records,  but  these  laws  underwent  their  careful  personal 
inspection  during  weeks  of  vigorous  examination. 

The  work  of  preparation  was  both  constructive  and  cleri 
cal.  The  elements  of  the  laws  were  largely  from  the  com 
mon  law,  and  they  required  judicious  and  wise  selection 
and  reconstruction.  The  people  in  all  the  towns  had  con 
tributed  their  mites,  to  be  used  or  declined  by  the  wise  mas 
ter-builders  in  forming  the  new  code.  But  at  last  it  had  to 
pass  and  receive  its  crowning  perfection  from  the  sanction  of 
the  most  eminent  founders  of  the  commonwealth. 

The  standard  of  public  morals  in  England  was  at  this  time 
very  low  indeed,  and  it  was  no  wonder,  therefore,  that  the 
Puritans  were  disgusted,  and  sought  in  every  way  to  exem 
plify  the  purity  and  worth  of  that  Christianity  which  they 
were  professing  with  great  sincerity.1 

There  arose  at  once  a  conflict,  therefore,  between  the 
Puritans  and  state  and  church  of  England,  respecting  the 
immoral  influence  of  the  drama. 

In  connection  with  the  above  it  may  be  worth  while  to 
advert  to  the  fact  that  on  the  27th  of  September,  1631, 
being  Sunday,  the  play  of  the  Midsummer  Night's  Dream 
was  privately  performed  in  the  Bishop  of  Lincoln's  house  in 
London. 

The  Puritans  had  influence  to  get  this  affair  inquired 
into  and  visited  with  punishment,  and  there  is  something 
rather  humorous  in  what  was  decreed  to  the  performer  of 
1  Palfrey's  New  England,  i.  276  j  Barry's  Mass.,  i.  324. 


268  THOMAS   DUDLEY  [CH.  xxiv 

Bottom  the  weaver :  "  We  do  order  that  Mr.  Wilson,  as  he 
was  especial  plotter  and  contriver  of  this  business,  and  did 
in  such  a  vigorous  manner  act  the  same  with  an  ass's  head, 
shall  upon  Tuesday  next,  from  six  o'clock  in  the  morning 
till  six  o'clock  at  night  sit  in  the  porter's  lodge  at  my  Lord 
Bishop's  house  with  his  feet  in  the  stocks  and  attired  with 
an  ass's  head,  and  a  bottle  of  hay  before  him  and  this  in 
scription  on  his  breast :  — 

*  Good  people,  I  have  played  the  beast, 

And  brought  ill  things  to  pass ; 
I  was  a  man,  but  thus  have  made, 
Myself  a  silly  ass.'  "  * 

We  have  in  remarkable  contrast  to  the  gay  life  and  drama 
in  England  in  the  Stuart  period,  the  New  England  Sunday, 
even  a  century  and  a  half  later,  in  1781  :  "Sunday  is  ob 
served  with  the  utmost  strictness ;  all  business,  how  impor 
tant  soever,  is  then  totally  at  a  stand,  and  the  most  innocent 
recreations  and  pleasures  prohibited.  Boston,  that  populous 
town,  where  at  other  times  there  is  such  a  hurry  of  business, 
is  on  this  day  a  mere  desert ;  you  may  walk  the  streets 
without  meeting  a  single  person,  or  if  by  chance  you  meet 
one  you  scarcely  dare  to  stop  and  talk  with  him.  A  French 
man  that  lodged  with  me  took  it  into  his  head  to  play  on  the 
flute  on  Sundays  for  his  amusement ;  people  upon  hearing 
it  were  greatly  enraged,  collected  in  crowds  around  the 
house  and  would  have  carried  matters  to  extremities  in  a 
short  time  with  the  musician,  had  not  the  landlord  given 
him  warning  of  his  danger  and  forced  him  to  desist.  Upon 
this  day  of  melancholy  you  cannot  go  into  a  house  but  you 
find  the  whole  family  employed  in  reading  the  Bible ;  and 
indeed  it  is  an  affecting  sight  to  see  the  father  of  a  family 
surrounded  by  his  household  hearing  him  explain  the  sub 
lime  truths  of  this  sacred  volume.  .  .  .  Piety  is  not  the  only 
motive  that  brings  the  American  ladies  in  crowds  to  the 
various  places  of  worship.  Deprived  of  all  shows  and  pub- 

1  Halliwell's  Shakspere,  v.  12;  The  Book  of  Days,  i.  556;  Charles 
Kingsley's  Plays  and  Puritans,  9,  10,  20. 


1639-41]  COTTON'S   LONG   SERMONS  269 

lie  diversions  whatever,  the  church  is  the  grand  theatre 
where  they  attend  to  display  their  extravagance  and  finery. 
There  they  come  dressed  off  in  the  finest  silks,  and  over 
shadowed  with  a  profusion  of  the  most  profuse  plumes."  1 

The  church  in  New  England  furnished  the  chief  attrac 
tion  and  entertainment  in  the  seventeenth  century. 

Some  account  of  the  service  appears  in  Samuel  Whiting's 
"  Life  of  the  Rev.  John  Cotton,"  minister  of  Boston  in  1632. 
Mr.  Cotton  "was  marvelous  successful  in  his  ministry,  till 
he  had  been  twenty  years  there,  and  in  that  twenty  years' 
space,  he,  on  Lord's  day  on  afternoons,  went  over  thrice  the 
whole  body  of  divinity  in  a  catechistical  way,  and  gave  the 
heads  of  his  discourse  to  those  who  were  young  scholars,  and 
others,  in  that  town,  to  answer,  his  questions  in  public  in 
that  great  congregation  ;  and  after  their  answers,  he  opened 
those  heads  of  divinity,  and  sweetly  applied  all  to  the  edifica 
tion  of  his  people,  and  to  such  strangers  as  came  to  hear 
him. 

"  In  the  morning  on  the  Lord's  day  he  preached  over  the 
first  six  chapters  of  the  Gospel  by  John,  the  whole  book  of 
Ecclesiastes,  the  Prophecy  of  Zephaniah,  and  many  other 
Scriptures  ;  and  when  the  Lord's  Supper  was  administered 
(which  was  usually  every  month),  he  preached  upon  I  Cor. 
xi.,  and  the  whole  thirtieth  chapter  of  the  2  Chronicles,  and 
some  other  Scriptures  about  the  Lord's  Supper. 

"  On  his  lecture  days,  he  preached  through  the  whole  1st 
and  2d  Epistles  of  John,  the  whole  Book  of  Solomon's  Song, 
the  Parables  of  our  Saviour,  set  forth  in  Matthew's  Gospel 
to  the  end  of  chapter  1 3th,  comparing  them  with  Mark  and 
Luke.  He  took  much  pains  in  private  and  read  to  sundry 
young  scholars  that  were  in  his  house.  .  .  .  Beside  his  ordi 
nary  lecture  on  the  fifth  day  of  the  week,  he  preached  thrice 
more  on  the  week  days,  on  the  fourth  and  sixth  days,  early 
in  the  morning,  and  on  the  last  day,  at  three  of  the  clock  in 
the  afternoon.  .  .  .  He  was  frequent  in  duties  of  humilia- 

1  Abb£  Robin,  N.  B.  Shurtleff's  Top.  and  Hist.  Descript.  of  Boston, 
69-71. 


270  THOMAS   DUDLEY  [CH.  xxiv 

tion  and  thanksgiving,  in  which  I  have  known  him  in  prayer 
and  opening  the  word  and  applying  it,  five  or  six  hours." 1 

Winthrop  informs  us  that  in  1639,  "Mr.  Hooker  being 
to  preach  at  Cambridge,  the  governor  [Mr.  Winthrop]  and 
many  others  went  to  hear  him  (though  the  governor  did 
very  seldom  go  from  his  own  congregation  upon  the  Lord's 
day).  He  preached  in  the  afternoon,  and  having  gone  on 
with  much  strength  of  voice  and  intention  of  spirit  about  a 
quarter  of  an  hour,  he  was  at  stand,  and  told  the  people  that 
God  had  deprived  him  both  of  his  strength  and  matter,  etc., 
and  so  went  forth,  and  about  half  an  hour  after  returned 
again,  and  went  on  to  very  good  purpose  about  two  hours. 

"  There  was  at  this  time  a  very  great  drought  .  .  .  where 
upon  the  General  Court  conferred  with  the  elders,  and 
agreed  upon  a  day  of  humiliation  about  a  week  after. 

"  The  very  day  after  the  fast  was  appointed  there  fell  a 
good  shower,  and  within  one  week  after  the  day  of  humilia 
tion  was  passed,  we  had  such  store  of  rain  and  so  seasonably 
as  the  corn  revived  and  gave  hope  of  a  very  plentiful  har 
vest."  2 

Thomas  Dudley  was  elected  governor  for  the  second  time, 
in  1640.  Winthrop  says  :  "  Some  trouble  there  had  been 
in  making  way  for  his  election  and  it  was  obtained  with  some 
difficulty,  for  many  of  the  elders  labored  much  in  it,  fearing 
lest  the  long  continuance  of  one  man  in  the  place  should 
bring  it  to  be  for  life,  and  in  time  hereditary.  Besides,  this 
gentleman  [Dudley]  was  a  man  of  approved  wisdom  and 
godliness,  and  of  much  good  service  to  the  country,  and 
therefore  it  was  his  due  to  share  in  such  honor  and  benefit 
as  the  country  had  to  bestow."  3 

This,  as  we  have  before  said,  is  remarkable  testimony  to 
the  worth  and  character  of  Dudley  from  a  political  rival,  at 
the  end  of  more  than  ten  years  of  constant  intercourse  and 
most  difficult  business  relations.  Johnson  says,  in  "  Wonder- 
Working  Providence,"  that  "for  to  govern  and  rule  this  little 

1  Young's  Chron.,  424,  425. 

2  Winthrop,  i.  *3O4,  *3O5-  8  Ib.,  ii.  *3. 


1640]         DUDLEY   OPPOSED   THE   MINISTERS  271 

commonwealth,  was  this  year  chosen  the  valiant  champion 
for  the  advance  of  Christ's  truth,  Thomas  Dudley,  Esq.,  and 
Richard  Bellingham,  Esq.,  deputy  governor."  1 

Alden  Bradford,  speaking  in  1822  of  this  election,  says, 
"  Dudley  was  a  man  of  great  integrity  and  piety,  but  bigoted 
and  intolerant  in  his  theological  views.  .  .  .  Winthrop  was 
passed  by,  not  from  any  disesteem  or  want  of  confidence  of 
the  people,  but  to  relieve  him  of  the  cares  of  government, 
and  probably  in  accordance  with  the  republican  maxim  of 
rotation  in  office."2 

In  comparing  the  actions  of  these  two  foremost  men  of 
that  period,  it  is  quite  evident  that  Winthrop  made  what 
effort  he  could  to  be  reflected,  but  the  popular  current,  for 
democratic  reasons,  was  against  him  and  in  favor  of  Dudley. 
As  we  have  said  before,  it  was  no  doubt  a  matter  of  princi 
ple  with  Dudley,  on  account  of  his  regard  for  rotation  in 
office,  not  to  occupy  the  governor's  position  oftener  than 
once  in  five  years. 

Many  important  laws  were  passed  during  this  year.  About 
this  time  there  was  a  struggle  for  power  between  the  magis 
trates  and  the  ministers.  Cotton  preached  that  the  priest 
hood  ought  to  be  consulted  in  all  civil  and  military  affairs. 
This  doctrine  met  the  indignant  opposition  of  Governor 
Dudley.  He  was  glad  to  welcome  any  instruction  or  infor 
mation  from  the  ministers  in  the  new  and  untried  experi 
ment  of  government,  in  which  the  Bible  was  made  the 
supreme  law  of  the  land,  but  he  was  equally  opposed  to  their 
holding  any  official  station  or  any  place  of  power  in  the  civil 
government.  And  he,  above  all  other  men,  stood  ready  to 
confront  them  if  they  undertook  in  any  manner  to  cross  the 
dividing  line  which  separated  the  functions  of  the  state  and 
of  the  church.  He  seems  to  have  been  only  anxious  to  do 
right,  and  fearless  of  both  ecclesiastical  and  political  influ 
ence  which  might  assail  him  or  his  fortunes,  but  always 
watchful  of  any  influences,  near  or  remote,  which  might 
inflict  an  injury  upon  Massachusetts. 

1  Chap.  xvi.  138.  2  Bradford's  Hist,  of  Mass.,  45. 


272  THOMAS   DUDLEY  [CH.  xxiv 

It  is  very  agreeable  to  note  the  care  which  they  all  enter 
tained  respecting  their  wards,  the  Indians,  and  the  protection 
which  they  afforded  to  them.  "It  was  ordered  this  year 
that  the  English  settlers  shall  keep  their  cattle  from  destroy 
ing  the  Indians'  corn,  and  if  any  of  their  corn  be  damaged 
for  want  of  fencing  or  herding,  the  town  shall  be  liable  to 
make  satisfaction/' 

Acts  were  also  passed  for  the  encouragement  of  the  manu 
facture  of  linen,  woolen,  and  cotton  cloth.  The  colony  was 
afflicted  at  this  time  with  that  great  common  need,  the  want 
of  money.  On  account  of  the  scarcity  of  money,  it  was 
ordered  that  debts  might  be  paid  in  corn,  cattle,  fish,  or 
other  commodities,  at  such  rates  as  the  General  Court 
should  from  time  to  time  establish,  but  this  applied  only 
to  debts  contracted  before  a  certain  date. 

An  important  law  was  passed  "  for  avoiding  all  fraudulent 
conveyances,  and  that  every  man  may  know  what  estate  or 
interest  other  men  may  have  in  any  houses,  lands,  or  other 
hereditaments  they  are  to  deal  in."  And  also  the  appoint 
ment  of  persons  to  take  acknowledgments  of  deeds.1  This 
order,  together  with  the  following  order,  made  the  next  year, 
was  a  great  advance  in  the  law  of  conveyance :  "  It  is  also 
ordered,  and  by  this  Court  declared,  that  all  our  lands  and 
heritages  shall  be  free  from  all  fines  and  licenses  upon 
alienations,  and  from  all  heriots,  wardships,  liveries,  primer 
seisins,  year  day  and  waste,  escheats,  and  forfeitures,  upon 
the  deaths  of  parents  or  ancestors,  be  they  natural,  casual, 
or  judicial.  All  persons  which  are  of  the  age  of  twenty-one 
years,  and  of  right  understanding  and  memories,  whether 
excommunicate  or  condemned,  shall  have  full  power  and 
liberty  to  make  their  wills  and  testaments  and  other  lawful 
alienations  of  their  lands  and  estates."  2 

Lowell  says  :  "  The  men  who  gave  every  man  a  chance  to 
become  a  landholder,  who  made  the  transfer  of  land  easy, 
and  put  knowledge  within  the  reach  of  all,  have  been  called 

1  Mass.  Col.  Rec.,  i.  306,  307. 

2  Body  of  Liberties,  1641,  Nos.  10,  n,  Whitmore's  ed.,  35. 


1640]  DUDLEY   AND   MIANTONOMOH  273 

narrow-minded,  because  they  were  intolerant.  But  intolerant 
of  what  ?  Of  what  they  believed  to  be  dangerous  nonsense, 
which  if  left  free  would  destroy  the  last  hope  of  civil  and 
religious  freedom."  l 

One  of  the  remarkable  events  in  the  official  life  of  Dudley 
this  year  was  his  reception  of  Miantonomoh,  the  eminent 
sachem  of  Narragansett,  at  his  home  in  Roxbury.  This 
chief  has  an  important  place  in  the  history  of  this  period, 
because  he  was  supposed  to  be,  and  probably  was,  the  friend 
of  Roger  Williams  and  of  Gorton,  while  he  was  finally  be 
lieved  by  the  United  Colonies  to  be  the  crafty  enemy  of  the 
English,  and  conspiring  secretly  for  their  entire  destruction, 
as  King  Philip  did  a  quarter  of  a  century  later.  They  were 
so  thoroughly  convinced  of  his  treachery  towards  them  and 
their  allies  that  they  suffered  him  to  be  destroyed  by  Uncas. 
Much  has  been  written  in  testimony  against  the  United 
Colonies  for  their  action  in  this  matter,  which  is  unjust  to 
them,  for  they  acted  reluctantly  and  upon  careful  examina 
tion,  and  only  allowed  extreme  measures  when  they  regarded 
them  needful  for  the  preservation  of  the  whole  English  enter 
prise  in  America. 

Winthrop  has  left  an  interesting  account  of  this  visit  of 
the  chief  to  the  home  of  Dudley.2 

Mr.  Savage,  in  his  note  to  Winthrop,  thought  that  Dudley 
manifested  more  resolution  than  good  policy  in  his  treatment 
of  Miantonomoh.  But  Dudley  says  that  he  thought  it  a  dis 
honor  to  give  way  to  him,  and  he  was  not  the  man  to  barter 
honor  for  anything.  His  judgment  at  the  time  ought  to  be 
conclusive,  particularly  since  it  was  sustained  by  the  General 
Court,  that  this  magnificent  savage  needed  to  be  instructed 
to  respect  the  dignity  and  authority  of  Massachusetts. 

This  year,  1640,  was  an  important  one  in  England,  for 
the  Puritans  were  coming  into  power,  and  the  liberty  which 
they  were  seeking  in  America  was  now  becoming  possible  at 
home ;  there  were  indications  also  of  a  revolution  which  they 

1  J.  R.  Lowell's  Among  my  Books,  i.  242. 

2  Winthrop,  ii.*is,*i6. 


274  THOMAS   DUDLEY  [CH.  xxiv 

could  not  honorably  flee  from,  and  which  they  felt  it  a  re 
ligious  duty  to  share  in.  The  emigration  to  Massachusetts 
from  England  had  been  so  large,  that  in  the  ten  years  previ 
ous  to  this  period  it  is  estimated  that  twenty  thousand  Eng 
lish  Puritans  had  come  to  the  colony.  The  great  rebellion 
stopped  this  influx  of  people,  and  from  that  time  to  the 
American  Revolution  it  is  said  that  more  men  returned  to 
England  from  America  than  came  thence  to  this  country. 

This  feature  is  not  to  be  disregarded,  because  from  this  it 
is  evident  how  large  a  portion  of  the  inhabitants  of  America 
was  native,  and  not  foreign  born,  in  a  few  generations. 

The  Long  Parliament  was  now  assembled,  and  the  great 
rebellion  begun,  and  Massachusetts  was  left  mostly  to  her 
self  for  many  years.  Palfrey  says  :  "  The  Puritan  party  in 
England,  which  did  so  many  wonderful  things,  was  at  the 
start  distinctly  a  party  of  reform  and  not  a  party  of  revolu 
tion  or  separation  in  church  and  state."  l 

We  can  hardly  conceive  what  it  meant  for  our  forefathers 
to  be  set  at  liberty,  three  thousand  miles  .away,  from  the 
dictation  and  influence  of  English  politicians  and  of  the 
established  church. 

These  Puritans  were  conservative  people ;  no  body  of  men 
was  ever  less  fanatical.  "  It  is  to  Puritanism  that  we  mainly 
owe  the  fact  that  in  England  religion  and  liberty  were  not 
dissevered  amid  all  the  fluctuations  of  fortune."  2 

Barry  says :  "  Liberty  in  England  existed  but  in  name ; 
and  for  its  revival  that  nation  is  largely  indebted  to  the 
efforts  of  the  Puritans.  It  has  long  been  the  fashion  to 
deride  this  sect  and  to  brand  it  as  an  embodiment  of  cant 
and  hypocrisy.  Few  have  comprehended  the  importance  of 
its  mission,  fewer  have  awarded  it  its  just  meed  of  praise. 
It  is  so  easy  to  misjudge,  it  is  so  easy  to  join  in  the  sneer 
against  principles  which  are  despised  and  condemned,  that 
the  spirit  which  animated  the  body  of  the  Puritans  has  been 
undervalued  and  lost  sight  of  by  those  whose  prejudices 

1  Palfrey,  i.  304. 

2  Lecky's  Rationalism  in  Europe,  ii.  173 ;  De  Tocqueville,  i.  43, 44. 


1639-40]        PRINTING   PRESS   IN   CAMBRIDGE  275 

incline  them  to  speak  lightly  of  everything  not  according 
with  their  own  views  and  opinions."  l 

Froude  has  beautifully  said  of  them :  "  These  men  were 
possessed  of  all  the  qualities  which  give  nobility  and  gran 
deur  to  human  nature,  men  whose  life  was  as  upright  as 
their  intellect  was  commanding,  and  their  public  aims  un 
tainted  with  selfishness,  unalterably  just  where  duty  required 
them  to  be  stern,  but  with  the  tenderness  of  a  woman  in 
their  hearts,  frank,  true,  cheerful,  humorous,  as  unlike  sour 
fanatics  as  it  is  possible  to  imagine  any  one,  and  able  in 
some  way  to  sound  the  keynote  to  which  every  brave  and 
faithful  heart  in  Europe  instinctively  vibrated.  This  is  the 
problem  :  grapes  do  not  grow  on  bramble  bushes."  2 

Governor  Winthrop  mentions  in  March,  1639,  that  a 
"  Printerie  was  begun  at  Cambridge  by  one  Stephen  Daye. 
The  first  issues  from  that  press  was  an  oath  for  freemen  to 
sign,  and  Pierce's  Little  Almanack,  followed  in  1640  by  the 
publication  of  'The  Whole  Book  of  Psalms'  in  English 
Meter,  for  the  Use,  Edification  and  Comfort  of  the  Saints 
in  New  England."  8  Soon  a  new  translation  was  confided 
to  Richard  Mather,  "  whose  voice  was  large  and  big,  who 
was  associated  in  this  work  with  Rev.  John  Eliot  and  Rev. 
Thomas  Welde,  ministers  at  Roxbury."  4 

The  General  Court  confirms  the  grant  to  Dudley  of  a  farm 
in  Ipswich,  as  follows :  "  The  farm  (granted  by  Ipswich  to 
the  present  governor)  [Dudley]  which  Mr.  Whitingham  pos 
sessed  is  confirmed  so  far  as  it  is  in  the  Court's  power."  5 

Winthrop  says,  "  We  received  a  letter  at  the  General 
Court  from  the  magistrates  of  Connecticut  and  New  Haven 
and  of  Aquiday,  wherein  they  declare  their  dislike  of  such 
as  would  have  the  Indians  rooted  out,  as  being  of  the  cursed 
race  of  Ham,  and  their  desire  of  our  mutual  accord  in  seek- 

1  Barry's  Hist,  of  Mass.,  i.  322. 

2  J.  A.  Froude's  Short  Studies  on  Great  Subjects,  2d  series,  14,  52. 
8  Winthrop,  i.  289. 

4  Mag.  of  Amer.  Hist.,  xxiii.  384. 
6  Mass.  Col.  Rec.,  i.  304. 


276  THOMAS   DUDLEY  [CH.  xxiv 

ing  to  gain  them  by  justice  and  kindness,  and  withal  to 
watch  over  them  to  prevent  any  danger  by  them,  etc.  We 
returned  answer  of  our  consent  with  them  in  all  things  pro 
pounded,  only  we  refused  to  include  those  of  Aquiday  in 
our  answer,  or  to  have  any  treaty  with  them."  l 

It  seems  desirable  to  quote  in  full  the  Court  record  in  this 
matter,  which  is  as  follows :  "  It  is  ordered,  that  the  letter 
lately  sent  to  the  governor  [Dudley]  by  Mr.  Eaton,  Mr. 
Hopkins,  Mr.  Haynes,  Mr.  Coddington  and  Mr.  Brenton, 
but  concerning  also  the  General  Court,  shall  be  thus  an 
swered  by  the  governor  [Dudley],  that  the  Court  doth 
assent  to  all  the  propositions  laid  down  in  the  aforesaid 
letter,  but  that  the  answer  shall  be  directed  to  Mr.  Eaton, 
Mr.  Hopkins,  and  Mr.  Haynes,  only  excluding  Mr.  Codding 
ton  and  Mr.  Brenton  as  men  not  to  be  capitulated  withal  by 
us,  either  for  themselves  or  the  people  of  the  island  where 
they  inhabit,  as  their  case  standeth."2  Mr.  Savage,  in  his 
note  upon  the  extract  from  Winthrop's  Journal  made  above, 
grows  very  much  heated,  and  says,  "  By  giving  the  order  of 
Court,  to  which  our  text  refers,  I  shall  not  deserve  the  con 
demnation  of  exposing  the  nakedness  of  our  fathers."  The 
special  thing  which  disturbs  him  is  the  exclusion  of  Codding 
ton  and  Brenton,  both  of  Newport,  and  Antinomians,  in  the 
above  order.  He  continues  further  :  "  This  is  the  most 
exalted  triumph  of  bigotry."  This  word  bigotry  does  not 
come  gracefully  from  Mr.  Savage,  who  says  that  Welde  and 
other  inquisitors  have  trusted  much  to  the  influence  of  an 
odious  name.  It  is  "  the  most  common  artifice  of  the  exqui 
site  rancor  of  theological  hatred."  3 

This  was  not  bigotry ;  it  was  the  dignified,  proper  course 
of  the  General  Court  to  take  in  a  matter  in  which  they  were 
dealing  with  colonies,  and  not  so  much  with  individuals. 

These  two  persons  had  been  separated  and  lost  their  citi 
zenship  in  Massachusetts,  and  had  been  hostile  to  her  in  a 
very  trying  time.  They  did  not  represent  any  colony  with 

1  Winthrop,  ii.  *2o.  2  Mass.  Col.  Rec.,  i.  305. 

8  Winthrop,  i.  *2i5,  note  I. 


1640]      UNDER   NO   OBLIGATION   TO   CONTRACT          277 

a  charter  which  Massachusetts  recognized,  neither  did  she 
regard  them  later  otherwise  than  a  community  which  ought 
to  be  attached  either  to  herself  or  to  Plymouth. 

They  could  not  consistently  have  dealings  with  them  as  a 
colony,  and  yet  Mr.  Savage  has  suffered  himself  to  continue 
his  note  as  follows  :  "  Papists,  Jews,  Mussulmans,  Idolaters, 
or  Atheists  may  be  good  parties  to  a  civil  contract,  but  not 
erroneous  Protestant  brethren,  of  unimpeachable  piety,  dif 
fering  from  us  in  explication  of  unessential  or  unintelligible 
points  of  doubtful  disputation."  It  does  not  appear  that 
the  difficulty  about  contracting  was  a  question  of  nationality 
or  of  piety,  and  it  maynot  have  been  at  all  a  difference  in 
belief.  There  may  be  good  and  sufficient  reasons,  satis 
factory  to  one's  self,  why  he  should  not  enter  into  a  contract 
or  alliance  even  with  his  own  brother  or  friend ;  he  certainly 
has  the  right  to  judge  for  himself  whether  he  will  or  will  not, 
and  it  does  not  seem  to  be  the  business  of  other  people. 

"  It  was  not  enough  that  the  common  charities  of  life  were 
broken  off,  but  our  rulers  proved  the  sincerity  of  their  folly 
by  refusing  connection  in  a  just  and  necessary  course  of 
policy1  which  demanded  the  concurrence  of  all  the  planta 
tions  on  our  coast."  It  might  demand  the  action  of  Massa 
chusetts  and  of  the  separate  plantations,  but  the  necessity  for 
concurrence  in  action  does  not  appear.  We  will  not  claim 
that  these  words  of  Mr.  Savage,  to  use  his  own  quoted 
expression,  are  the  "artifice  of  the  exquisite  rancor  of  theo 
logical  hatred,"  but  they  do  seem  to  be  inspired  by  a  partisan 
and  prejudiced  spirit  which  manifests  itself  in  many  places 
in  his  notes. 

It  is  painful  to  notice  in  this  connection  how  easily  this 
prejudice  infects  successive'writers,  and  that  even  so  faithful 
a  man  as  J.  A.  Doyle  has  suffered  himself  to  commend  and 
approve 'this  wrong,  and,  finally,  unjustly  to  concentrate  the 
whole  force  of  his  discreditable  charges  upon  Dudley,  as  fol 
lows  :  "  It  is  consolatory  to  those  who  reverence  the  mem- 

1  The  policy  might  be  just,  but  how  necessary,  except  to  Rhode 
Island,  that  they  should  join  her  in  it,  is  not  evident. 


278  THOMAS    DUDLEY  [CH.  xxiv 

ory  of  the  great  New  England  statesman,  that  Dudley,  and 
not  Winthrop,  was  the  governor  when  this  outburst  of  fanat 
ical  malignity  was  recorded."  1 

Arnold  says  :  "  The  governor  of  Massachusetts  at  this 
time  was  the  bigoted  Dudley,  the  man  upon  whose  person 
there  was  found,  when  on  his  death-bed,  this  original  couplet, 
which  embodies  the  prevailing  sentiment  of  the  age  :  — 

*  Let  men  of  God  in  courts  and  churches  watch 
O'er  such  as  do  a  toleration  hatch.' 

A  verse  no  doubt  considered  equally  creditable  to  the  piety 
and  the  poetic  genius  of  the  author.  We  think  it  was." 

Mr.  Arnold,  after  quoting  those  remarkable  lines,  which 
have  such  a  fascination  for  some  persons,  and  reflecting  upon 
both  the  piety  and  poetic  genius  of  Dudley,  which  is  usual 
in  these  cases,  concludes  with  these  words  full  of  prejudice : 
"That  such  a  governor  should  adopt  such  a  course  might  be 
expected."  It  is  only  needful  to  give  heed  to  the  order  of 
the  Court,  which  has  been  quoted  and  which  is  the  founda 
tion  of  all  this  bitterness,  to  discover  that  the  governor, 
Dudley,  had  no  choice  in  this  matter,  was  only  the  presiding 
officer  sworn  to  execute  the  orders  of  the  General  Court, 
which  were  that  the  answers  shall  be  directed  to  certain 
ones  only,  excluding  Mr.  Coddington  and  Mr.  Brenton  as 
men  not  to  be  capitulated  by  them. 

It  is  further  to  be  noted  that  Winthrop,  who  they  find 
such  consolation  in  remembering  was  not  governor  at  the 
time,  and  so,  they  declare,  free  from  blame  in  this  and  other 
instances  of  intolerance,  was  present  at  this  Court,  and  took 
part  in  constructing  this  order  alleged  to  be  full  of  bigotry. 

Arnold  heaps  all  the  supposed  opprobrium  of  this  matter 
upon  Dudley,  to  whom  he  alludes  with  sentiments  of  con 
tempt  which  are  unjust  and  unreasonable.2 

1  J.  A.  Doyle's  The  English  in  America,  i.  309. 

2  Felt,  i.  457;  Arnold's  Hist.  R.  I.,  i.  147. 


CHAPTER  XXV 

OUR  excuse  for  introducing  the  following  mere  business 
note  from  Dudley  to  Winthrop  is  that  every  original  docu 
ment  which  connects  these  distinguished  men  possesses  a 
public  interest. 

To    MY    HONORED    BROTHER,    JOHN    WlNTHROP,    ESQ.,    at   his 

house  at  Boston. 

Sir,  —  I  have  received  the  20  li.,1  sent  now  by  your  man, 
for  which  I  thank  you.  The  truth  is,  I  owe  the  whole  50  li. 
to  be  paid  the  end  of  this  month,  and  have  no  other  money  to 
pay  it.  The  money  is  not  yet  gathered  up  here  for  you,  and 
how  much  will  be  in  money  I  yet  know  not :  for  the  other 
things  you  write  of  I  likewise  return  thanks  and  purpose  to 
confer  thereof  with  you  at  my  coming  to  Boston,  and  in  the 
mean  time  and  ever  shall  rest, 

Your  very  assured 

THO  :  DUDLEY. 
ROXBURY,  4  month:  15  day,  1640.2 

It  is  enacted  this  year  that  the  preliminary  election  should 
be  held  in  the  towns,  the  lists  of  votes  to  be  sent  to  Bos 
ton  by  the  deputies,  and  the  candidates  who  stood  highest 
in  the  list  were  the  required  number  to  be  voted  for  or 
against  by  the  whole  body  of  freemen.3 

Richard  Bellingham  was  chosen  governor  at  the  election 
in  1641,  he  having  six  more  votes  than  Winthrop.  There 

1  Li.  is  probably  an  abbreviation  of  libra,  a  pound.     (Century  Diet., 
4657;  Ency.  Brit.,  o,th  ed.  655.) 

2  Indorsed    by    Governor  Winthrop,  "  Bro :    Dudley,    Governour." 
(Mass.  Hist.  Coll.,  4th  series,  vii.  no;  Winthrop  Papers,  pt.  n.) 

8  Mass.  Col.  Rec.,  i.  293. 


28o  THOMAS   DUDLEY  [CH.  xxv 

were,  however,  some  persons  who  were  said  not  to  have 
voted  who  now  desired  to  do  so,  but  were  refused  because 
they  had  not  voted  regularly  at  the  door.  Bellingham  was  a 
lawyer,  and  had  an  equal  share  with  Winthrop  and  Dudley 
in  framing  the  colonial  laws. 

This  election  seems  to  have  greatly  disturbed  Winthrop, 
who  undoubtedly  felt  that  if  the  election  had  been  fairly  held 
he  himself  would  have  been  elected  governor.  It  was  the 
democratic  spirit  of  the  period  and  a  desire  for  rotation  in 
office,  rather  than  personal  hostility  to  Winthrop,  which 
elected  Bellingham  at  this  time.  It  is  evident  that  in  the 
years  following  the  Antinomian  controversy  party  spirit  was 
high,  and  that  there  were  church  factions,  political  factions, 
and  disturbing  party  influences.  The  alleged  informality  in 
the  election  resulted  at  once  in  the  unpopularity  of  Belling 
ham,  because  they  at  once  passed  a  vote  to  repeal  "the 
order  formerly  made  for  allowing  a  hundred  pounds  to  the 
governor."  1 

Winthrop  says,  "  The  governor,  Mr.  Bellingham,  was  mar 
ried.  (I  would  not  mention  such  ordinary  matters  in  our  his 
tory,  but  by  occasion  of  some  remarkable  accidents.)  The 
young  gentlewoman  was  ready  to  be  contracted  to  a  friend 
of  his,  who  lodged  in  his  house,  and  by  his  consent  had  pro 
ceeded  so  far  with  her,  when  of  the  sudden  the  governor 
treated  with  her,  and  obtained  her  for  himself.  He  excused 
it  by  the  strength  of  his  affection,  and  that  she  was  not 
absolutely  promised  to  the  other  gentleman.  Two  errors 
more  he  committed  upon  it :  ist,  That  he  would  not  have 
his  contract  published  where  he  dwelt,  contrary  to  an  order 
of  Court ;  2d,  That  he  married  himself  contrary  to  the  con 
stant  practice  of  the  country."  2 

Savage  says  :  "  The  people  were  scandalized  at  such  a 
breach  of  order  in  their  chief  magistrate." 

Winthrop  says  also  :  "  There  fell  out  a  case  between  Mr. 
Dudley,  one  of  the  council,  and  Mr.  Howe,. a  ruling  elder  of 

1  Mass.  Col.  Rec.,  i.  319. 
3  Winthrop,  ii.  *43- 


1641]    DUDLEY    RESOLVED   TO   LEAVE   HIS   PLACE     281 

the  church  of  Watertown,  about  a  title  to  a  mill.1  The  case 
is  too  long  here  to  report,  but  it  was  so  clear  on  Dudley's 
part,  both  in  law  and  equity  (most  of  the  magistrates  also 
and  deputies  concurring  therein),  as  the  elders  being  desired 
to  be  present  at  the  hearing  of  the  case,  they  also  consented 
with  the  judgment  of  the  Court,  before  the  case  was  put  to 
vote,  and  some  of  them  humbly  advised  the  Court,  that  it 
would  be  greatly  to  their  dishonor,  and  an  apparent  injustice, 
if  they  should  otherwise  determine.  Notwithstanding,  he 
[Bellingham]  still  labored  to  have  the  cause  carried  against 
Mr.  Dudley."  2 

Winthrop  proceeds  to  describe  the  conduct  of  the  gov 
ernor  on  this  occasion  as  being  very  unjust,  unworthy 
revealing  a  very  hostile  spirit  toward  Dudley. 

There  were  other  instances  of  improper  conduct  in  Court, 
and  Winthrop  says  :  "  Upon  these  and  other  miscarriages 
the  deputies  consulted  together,  and  sent  up  their  speaker, 
with  some  others,  to  give  him  [Bellingham]  a  solemn  admo 
nition,  which  was  never  done  to  any  governor  before,  nor 
was  it  in  their  power  without  the  magistrates  had  joined."  3 

Winthrop  continues :  "  These  continual  oppositions  and 
delays,  tending  to  the  hindrance  and  perverting  of  justice, 
afforded  much  occasion  of  grief  to  all  the  magistrates,  espe 
cially  to  Mr.  Dudley,  who  being  a  very  wise  and  just  man, 
and  one  that  would  not  be  trodden  under  foot  of  any  man, 
took  occasion  (alleging  his  age,  etc.)  to  tell  the  Court  that 
he  was  resolved  to  leave  his  place,  and  therefore  desired 
them  against  the  next  Court  of  Elections  to  think  of  some 
other. 

"  The  Ceurt  was  much  affected  with  it,  and  entreated  him 
with  manifestation  of  much  affection  and  respect  towards 
him,  to  leave  off  these  thoughts,  and  offered  him  any  ease 
and  liberty  that  his  age  and  infirmities  might  stand  in  need 
of,  but  he  continued  resolute. 

1  Mass.  Col.  Rec.,  i.  344. 

2  Winthrop,  ii.  *5o,  *5i. 

8  Ib.,  ii.  *53 ;  J.  B.  Moore's  Memoirs  Amer.  Governors,  338. 


282  THOMAS   DUDLEY  [CH.  xxv 

"  Thereupon  the  governor  [Bellingham]  also  made  a  speech, 
as  if  he  desired  to  leave  his  place  of  magistracy  also,  but  he 
was  fain  to  make  his  own  answer,  for  no -man  desired  him  to 
keep  or  to  consider  better  of  it." x 

It  is  a  notable  fact  that  Bellingham  and  Saltonstall  were 
frequently  foun'd  in  hostile  opposition  to  the  older  magis 
trates  and  their  ideas.  Nobody  can  read  these  accounts 
without  discovering  that  Dudley  was  a  far  stronger  man 
than  Bellingham. 

Bellingham  has  been  described  as  a  more  thorough  lawyer 
than  Dudley,  which  may  well  be  doubted,  but  he  certainly  ex 
ceeds  Bellingham  in  manly  dignity,  in  uprightness  of  charac 
ter  ;  for  though  Dudley  was  a  man  of  strong  emotions,  and 
is  sometimes  represented  as  exhibiting  righteous  indignation 
when  he  felt  that  either  he  himself  or  his  principles,  or  what 
he  conceived  to  be  the  just  course,  were  assailed,  yet  he 
never  anywhere  appears  as  a  party  in  any  discreditable  or 
unworthy  conduct  or  speeches.  And  this  in  a  measure  is 
true  in  comparing  Dudley  and  Endicott. 

The  strength,  dignity,  and  consistency  of  Winthrop  and 
Dudley  seem  to  raise  them  in  intellectual  and  moral  gran 
deur  above  their  associates  ;  and  while  they  lived,  all  the 
others  occupied  a  secondary  place,  and  in  general  were 
recognized  by  the  colony  as  ranking  beneath  them  in  im 
portance  and  influence.  We  are  able  to  discover  in  this 
description  which  Winthrop  has  left  us  of  the  feelings  of  the 
Court  when  Dudley  tendered  his  resignation  with  great  sin 
cerity  and  without  mental  reservation,  giving  his  reasons, 
that  he  was  universally  held  in  high  esteem  ;  enjoying  a  pop 
ularity  among  his  associates  which  any  man  might  justly  be 
proud  of,  having  just  left  the  office  of  governor  and  having 
been  so  many  years  constantly  in  the  public  eye ;  and  it  adds 
weight  to  these  words  that  they  flow  from  the  pen  of  his 
great  political  rival. 

The  Colonial  Records  contain  the  following  :  "  Mr.  Dud 
ley  [June  2,  1641]  was  entreated  to  answer  Mr.  Fen  wick's 
Winthrop,  ii.  *55- 


1 641]       DUDLEY  ANSWERS   FENWICK'S   LETTER          283 

letter  according  to  the  directions  indorsed."  1  And  we  are 
interested  to  learn  what  it  was  about. 

We  have  been  unable  to  find  any  portion  of  this  corre 
spondence,  but  there  is  reason  to  believe  that  it  refers  to  a 
controversy  between  Massachusetts,  George  Fenwick,2  and 
Connecticut  respecting  the  true  line  between  Massachu 
setts  and  Connecticut  and  the  right  to  the  Connecticut  River, 
involving  also  the  question  whether  Springfield  was  in  one 
colony  or  the  other.3 

William  Pynchon,  Esq.,  had  made  a  settlement  already  at 
Agawam,  afterwards  called  Springfield.  These  rights  were 
finally  settled  after  much  deliberation  by  the  Confederacy  of 
the  United  Colonies.  Between  the  years  1641  and  1643  the 
rights  of  the  parties  were  constantly  being  considered  and 
agitated,  and  in  this  controversy  both  Fenwick  and  Massa 
chusetts  took  an  active  part. 

It  is  interesting  in  this  connection  to  remember  that  Fen 
wick  was  a  delegate  to  the  first  Congress  of  the  United 
Colonies  at  Boston,  at  which  the  Articles  of  Confederation 
were  adopted. 

Fenwick  was  afterwards  famous  in  English  history  as  a 

1  Mass.  Col.  Rec.,  i.  319. 

2  "  Minutes  of  the  General  Court,  2-41110  (June),  1641.     'For  answer 
to  Mr.  Fenwick's  letter  written  to  Mr.  Dudley,  Mr.  Dudley  to  answer 
according  to  the  four  heads  indorsed  on  the  letter  :  First,  it  is  thought 
by  many  of  the  Court  that  it  (Springfield)  is  within  our  patent ;  Second, 
our  claim  is  from  the  Pequot  conquest,  if  that  (our  Patent)  fail,  and 
the  Pequot  right  is  before  your  patent;  Third,  we  know  not  whether 
it  be  within  your  patent  or  no,  because  we  never  saw  it  nor  copy  of 
it;  Fourth,  for  the  division  of  the  tribute  we  (        );  but  (        )  that 
which  was  appointed  for  the  river,  your  share  was  in  it,  a  letter  to  Mr. 
Hunter  to  forbid  him  for  setting  up  (        )  trading  house  up  the  river  ; 
and  (if  he)  will  not,  the  governor  to  send  to  pull  it  down  and  to  write 
to  him  to  send  our  proportion  of  the  tribute.'    (Mass.  Archives,  State 
House,  Boston,  vol.  Ixxxvii.  p.  251.)     Compared  with  the  original,  Jan. 
28,  1898." 

We  have  recently  discovered  these  minutes  in  the  Mass.  Archives, 
which  explain  the  letter. 

8  Mass.  Col.  Rec.,i.  323,  324;  Trumbull's  Conn.,i.  118. 


284  THOMAS    DUDLEY  [CH.  xxv 

colonel  in  the  army  of  the  English  Commonwealth,  and  as 
one  of  the  judges  selected  by  Cromwell  to  try  Charles  the 
First.  He  had  the  wisdom,  however,  not  to  sit,  and  escaped 
the  danger  which  subsequently  attended  members  of  that 
court.  On  the  same  second  day  of  June  "  Mr.  Symonds, 
Mr.  Hubbard,  Mr.  Dummer,  Mr.  Bellingham,  and  Mr.  Dudley 
were  appointed  to  assist  at  Ipswich  court."  1 

On  the  same  day,  also,  Batt,  Dudley,  and  Winslow  were 
appointed  to  order  small  causes  for  Salisbury,  and  one  of 
them  to  see  people  joined  in  marriage  and  keep  records.2 
Governor  Winthrop  says  :  "  Mrs.  Hutchinson  and  those  of 
Aquiday  Island  broached  new  heresies  every  year.  Divers 
of  them  turned  professed  Anabaptists  and  would  not  wear  any 
arms,  and  denied  all  magistracy  among  Christians,  and  main 
tained  that  there  were  no  churches  since  those  founded  by 
the  Apostles  and  Evangelist."  3  Samuel  G.  Arnold  says 
with  reference  to  this  extract  from  Winthrop :  "  We  prefer 
to  quote  him  [Winthrop]  because  he  was  the  most  liberal 
man  of  his  age  and  station,  to  citing  the  more  bitter  denun 
ciations  of  Hubbard  and  Mather,  or  the  many  other  writers  of 
that  and  the  succeeding  century,  whose  Dudleian  spirit  would 
perhaps  more  truly  portray  the  prevailing  temper  of  the 
times."4 

It  is  evident  that  Arnold  had  been  touched  by  the  Dud 
leian  poetry,  but  he  also  indirectly  thus  compliments  Dudley 
with  having  been  abreast  of  his  age  and  with  being  the  spirit 
or  very  incarnation  of  it.  These  were  the  most  remarkable 
"  times  in  the  tides  of  men,"  the  most  fruitful  in  events  and 
seed-sowing.  Arnold,  like  Savage,  is  disturbed  by  the  terms 
Anabaptists  and  Antinomians,  and  says  that  they  "were 
used  generally  to  designate  all  dissenters  from  the  estab 
lished  faith."  This  is  certainly  a  questionable  statement ; 
we  do  not  think  that  these  terms  were  applied  to  Presbyte 
rians  or  other  well-established  sects.  The  General  Court  sets 
forth  as  follows  :  — 

1  Mass.  Col.  Rec.,  i.  328.  2  Ib.,  i.  329. 

«  Winthrop,  ii.  #38,  *4o.  4  Arnold's  Hist.  R.  I.,  i.  151. 


1641]  THE   BODY   OF   LIBERTIES  285 

"  It  being  found  by  experience  that  the  course  of  elections 
had  need  to  be  brought  into  some  better  order,  the  freemen 
growing  to  so  great  a  multitude  as  will  be  overburdensome 
to  the  country.  .  .  .  The  way  which  this  Court  hath  thought 
on  is,  that  in  every  town  which  is  to  send  a  deputy  to  the 
Court,  the  freemen  to  meet  before  the  Court  of  Election, 
and  for  every  ten  freemen  to  choose  one,  to  be  sent  to  the 
Court  witti  power  to  make  election  for  all  the  rest,  and  in 
this  way  to  be  at  liberty  whether  they  will  join  all  together 
or  vote  severally,  or  to  vote  so  as  every  one  that  hath  ten 
votes  shall  be  an  elector,  and  magistrates  and  elders  to  put 
in  their  votes  as  other  freemen."  1 

The  system  of  tens  disappeared  the  next  year.  The  towns 
were  to  elect  one  or  two  representatives,  and  these  represen 
tatives  formed  a  list  of  candidates,  from  which  the  freemen 
elected. 

Winthrop  writes  in  regard  to  the  General  Court  of  Decem 
ber,  1641  :  "This  session  continued  three  weeks,  and  estab 
lished  one  hundred  laws  which  were  called  the  Body  of 
Liberties.  They  had  been  composed  by  Mr.  Nathaniel 
Ward  (sometime  pastor  of  the  church  of  Ipswich  ;  he  had 
been  a  minister  in  England  and  formerly  a  student  and 
practicer  in  the  courts  of  the  common  law),  and  had  been 
revised  and  altered  by  the  Court,  and  sent  forth  into  every 
town  to  be  further  considered  of,  and  now  again  in  this 
Court,  they  were  revised,  amended,  and  presented,  and  so 
established  for  three  years,  by  that  experience  to  have  them 
fully  amended  and  established  to  be  perpetual."  2  It  is  evi 
dent  from  this  that  while  Ward  drew  the  outlines  of  the 
Body  of  Liberties,  all  the  lawyers  of  the  General  Court 
examined,  revised,  and  amended  them,  or  had  an  opportunity 
to  do  so. 

This  code  was  the  foundation  of  the  legislation  and  laws 
of  Massachusetts.  We  notice  in  No.  71  of  the  Body  of 
Liberties,  "  The  governor  shall  have  a  casting  voice  when- 

1  Mass.  Col.  Rec.,  i.  333,  334. 
a  Winthrop,  ii.  *$$. 


286  THOMAS   DUDLEY  [CH.  xxv 

soever  an  equi  vote  shall  fall  out  in  the  Court  of  Assistants, 
or  General  Assembly,  so  shall  the  president  or  moderator 
have  in  all  civil  courts  or  assemblies."  l 

This  gave  a  new  power  and  dignity  to  the  governor,  who 
previously  had  been  first  among  his  equals.  "  In  the  Con 
stitution  of  the  United  States,  and  in  those  of  many  States 
of  the  Union,  it  is  provided  that  the  presiding  officer  thereby 
designated  shall  give  the  casting  vote  when  the  body  over 
which  he  presides  is  equally  divided."  2 

We  have  already  noticed  the  founding  of  Harvard  Col 
lege,  and  the  fact  that  Dudley  was  from  1636,  during  the 
remainder  of  his  life,  one  of  its  patrons  and  overseers. 
George  B.  Emerson  has  said  that  "  the  people  of  Massachu 
setts  at  that  time  were  poor,  with  all  the  hardships  of  new 
settlers  in  a  savage  country,  clearing  up  the  forests,  build 
ing  houses  and  barns  and  churches,  enlarging  their  pastures, 
and  bringing  the  earth  into  cultivation.  .  .  .  One  of  the  most 
remarkable  things  in  the  history  of  Harvard  College  is  the 
fact  that  in  all  the  constitutions  of  the  college  there  is 
nothing  illiberal  or  sectarian,  nothing  to  check  the  freest 
pursuit  of  truth  in  theological  opinions  and  in  everything 
else ;  and  this,  too,  while  the  founders  of  the  college  were 
severely  and  strictly  orthodox,  often  exclusive  in  their  own 
opinions."  And  yet  these  men  are  branded  by  some  subse 
quent  citizens  as  narrow  and  bigoted. 

They  have  also  been  accounted  broad  and  liberal,  because 
they  extinguished  feudalism  and  created  unlimited  alienation 
of  land,  but  greater  glory  is  to  be  attributed  to  them  for  giv 
ing  freedom  of  mind,  and  opening  the  ways  of  truth  and  life 
to  all  the  generations  of  men  which  were  to  follow. 

The  device  on  the  first  seal  was  "  Veritas."  This  was  fol 
lowed  by  "  In  Christi  Gloriam  "  (To  the  Glory  of  Christ), 
and  this  soon  after  by  the  present  motto,  "  Christo  et  Eccle- 
siae  "  (To  Christ  and  the  Church).3 

1  W.  H.  Whitmore's  Col.  Laws  of  Mass.,  1660  to  1672,  49. 

2  Cushing's  Law  and  Practice  of  Legislative  Assemblies,  §§  298,  391. 

3  George  B.  Emerson,  Mass,  and  its  Early  Hist.,  468. 


1642]         LETTER  TO   REV.  JOHN   WOODBRIDGE  287 

The  conditions  for  admission  at  Harvard  College  were 
higher,  it  is  said,  in  1642  than  they  have  been  since.  The 
following  requirement  seems  pretty  severe  :  "  Whoever  shall 
be  able  to  read  Cicero,  or  any  such  like  classical  author  at 
sight,  and  correctly  and  without  assistance,  to  speak  and 
write  Latin,  in  prose  and  verse,  and  to  inflect  exactly  the 
paradigms  of  Greek  nouns  and  verbs,  has  a  right  to  expect 
to  be  admitted  into  the  college ;  and  no  one  may  claim 
admission  without  these  qualifications."  1 

Savage  thinks  that  there  were  in  the  colony  probably,  in 
1638,  forty  or  fifty  sons  of  the  University  of  Cambridge  in 
Old  England,  one  •  for  every  two  hundred  or  two  hundred 
and  fifty  inhabitants,  dwelling  in  the  few  villages  of  Massa 
chusetts  and  Connecticut.  The  sons  of  Oxford  were  not 
few.2  Mercy  Dudley,  the  fifth  child  of  Governor  Thomas 
Dudley,  married,  in  1641,  the  Rev.  John  Woodbridge,3  of 
Newbury,  Mass.  He  had  been  at  Oxford,  and  was  highly 
regarded  by  Dudley.  The  following  letter  to  him,  about 
one  year  after  the  marriage,  is  a  valuable  contribution,  since 
it  illustrates  the  affectionate  character  of  Dudley,  which  is 
more  important  because  we  have  very  little  knowledge  of  his 
domestic  and  family  life,  except  through  Mrs.  Bradstreet, 
but  are  limited  almost  entirely  in  our  study  to  his  public 
career : — 

SON  WOODBRIDGE,  —  On  your  last  going  from  Roxbury,  I 
thought  you  would  have  returned  again  before  your  depar 
ture  hence,  and  therefore  neither  bade  you  farewell,  nor  sent 
any  remembrance  to  your  wife.  Since  which  time  I  have 
often  thought  of  you,  and  of  the  course  of  your  life,  doubt 
ing  you  are  not  in  the  way  wherein  you  may  do  God  best 
service.  Every  man  ought  (as  I  take  it)  to  serve  God  in 
such  a  way  whereto  he  hath  best  fitted  him  by  nature,  educa 
tion,  or  gifts,  or  graces  required.  Now  in  all  these  respects 
I  conceive  you  to  be  better  fitted  for  the  ministry,  or  teach- 

1  J.  Quincy's  Hist.  Harv.  Univ.,  i.  515. 

a  Winthrop,  i.  *26s,  note  2.  8  App,  F. 


288  THOMAS   DUDLEY  [CH.  xxv 

ing  a  school,  than  for  husbandry.  And  I  have  been  lately 
stirred  up  the  rather  to  think  hereof  by  occasion  of  Mr. 
Carter's  calling  to  be  pastor  at  Woburn  the  last  week,  and 
Mr.  Parker's  calling  to  preach  at  Pascattaway,  whose  abilities 
and  piety  (for  aught  I  know)  surmount  not  yours.  There  is 
a  want  of  schoolmasters  hereabouts,  and  ministers  are,  or 
in  likelihood  will  be,  wanting  ere  long.  I  desire  that  you 
would  seriously  consider  of  what  I  say,  and  take  advice  of 
your  uncle,  Mr.  Noyse,  or  whom  you  think  meetest  about  it ; 
withal  considering  that  no  man's  opinion  in  a  case  wherein 
he  is  interested  by  reason  of  your  departure  from  your  pre 
sent  habitation  is  absolutely  to  be  allowed  without  comparing 
his  reason  with  others. 

And  if  you  find  encouragement,  I  think  you  were  best 
redeem  what  time  you  may  without  hurt  of  your  estate,  in 
perfecting  your  former  studies. 

Above  all,  commend  the  case  in  prayer  to  God,  that  you 
may  look  before  you  with  a  sincere  eye  upon  his  service,  not 
upon  filthy  lucre,  which  I  speak  not  so  much  for  any  doubt 
I  have. of  you,  but  to  clear  myself  from  that  suspicion  in 
respect  of  the  interest  I  have  in  you.  I  need  say  no  more. 
The  Lord  direct  and  bless  you,  your  wife  and  children,  whom 
I  would  fain  see,  and  have  again  some  thoughts  of  it,  if  I  live 
till  next  summer. 

Your  very  loving  father, 

THOMAS  DUDLEY. 
ROXBURY,  November  28th,  1642. 

To  my  very  loving  son  Mr.  John  Woodbridge,  at  his  house  in  New- 
bury.1 

This  letter  is  of  great  value,  because  Dudley  has  herein 
honestly  expressed  his  conviction  of  the  secondary  impor 
tance  in  this  world  of  money-getting.  He  has  often  been 
represented,  as  we  have  seen,  to  have  been  avaricious  and 
grasping,  which  was  indeed  quite  contrary  to  his  nature. 
That  he  was  one  of  the  wealthiest  men  in  the  colony  may 
have  contributed  improperly  to  have  given  him  a  mercenary 
1  Winthrop,  ii.  *253,  note. 


1642]  DUDLEY'S   CHARACTER  289 

character.  We  know  that  he  had  habits  of  thrift  and  an 
aptitude  for  business  which  rendered  him  of  great  service  to 
the  estate  of  the  Earl  of  Lincoln,  and  to  Massachusetts.  If 
he  had  been  a  miserly  man  he  would  never  have  emigrated 
to  America.  He  must  have  been  actuated  by  far  higher 
motives  than  the  acquiring  of  a  fortune. 

Dudley,  in  the  second  place,  was  a  deeply  religious  man  ; 
he  served  God  rather  than  mammon.  His  words  in  this 
letter  strongly  confirm  our  opinion  of  him  in  this  respect. 
He  says  with  great  sincerity  and  deep  pathos,  in  the  most 
disinterested  manner,  to  his  son,  "  Above  all,  commend  the 
case  in  prayer  to  God,  that  you  may  look  before  you  with  a 
sincere  eye  upon  his  service,  not  upon  filthy  lucre."  These 
are  not  the  words  of  a  sordid  man,  but  they  strike  the  very 
keynote  to  the  character  and  career  of  Dudley. 

There  is  throughout  this  letter  a  flavor  of  liberal  thought 
which  is  an  answer  to  the  unjust  conception  of  his  character 
which  has  been  almost  universally  set  forth  in  recent  years. 

The  influence  of  the  revolution  which  was  going  on  in 
England  seems  at  once  to  have  reached  Massachusetts,  the 
colony,  without  much  public  manifestation  of  feeling,  being 
deeply  in  sympathy  with  their  Puritan  brethren.  They  were 
bound  to  them  not  only  by  political  or  religious  interests, 
but  more  strongly,  if  possible,  by  family  bonds,  intimate  per 
sonal  friendship,  and  acquaintance.  They  were  persons  with 
whom  they  had  constantly  consulted  respecting  the  great 
emigration  to  America  and  the  fortunes  of  the  colony  during 
twelve  years.  The  two  commonwealths  on  either  side  of 
the  sea  had  much  in  common.  They  were  both  Saxon 
uprisings  against  feudalism  and  the  Royalists.  The  one  in 
England  nearly  failed  of  its  purpose,  while  the  other  in 
America  survives  with  ever-increasing  possibilities. 

This  revolution  revealed  itself  in  this  country  by  the  omis 
sion  in  the  oath  of  allegiance  to  the  king  so  far  as  the  magis 
trates  and  officers  were  concerned,  leaving  the  words  as 
follows  :  "  It  is  ordered  and  declared  to  be  the  meaning  of 
this  Court,  that  no  oath  of  magistrate  or  counselor  or  any 


290  THOMAS   DUDLEY  [CH.  xxv 

other  officer  shall  bind  him  any  further  or  longer  than  he  is 
resident  or  inhabiting  within  this  jurisdiction."  1 

This  is  quite  different  from  "  You  swear  to  be  faithful  and 
loyal  to  our  Sovereign,  Lord,  the  King's  Majesty  and  to  his 
heirs  and  successors." 

This  was  a  very  remarkable  political  severance  from  the 
mother  country,  and  was  a  step  far  on  the  way  towards 
independence.  The  growth  in  population  which  had  taken 
place  during  twelve  years  was  astonishing.  There  were 
twenty-one  flourishing  towns  at  this  time,  Boston  being  more 
than  twice  as  large  as  any  other  town  in  taxable  importance, 
a  prominence  in  Massachusetts  which  she  has  always  main 
tained. 

Robert  C.  Winthrop  says  that  "  the  year  1642  saw  Win- 
throp  restored  to  chief  magistracy  of  the  colony  ;  not,  how 
ever,  it  would  seem,  without  some  heart-burning  on  the  part 
of  his  old  rival,  Thomas  Dudley."  There  may  have  been 
two  versions  to  this  story,  as  there  are  to  many  others  in 
literature.  But,  if  there  ever  were  two,  only  one  has  come 
down  to  us ;  and  that  is  contained  in  the  following  passage 
from  Winthrop,  vol.  ii.  p.  *63,  dated  May  18,  1642  :  — 

"  The  Court  of  elections  was.  Mr.  Winthrop  was  again 
chosen  governor,  and  Mr.  Endicott,  deputy  governor.  This 
being  done,  Mr.  Dudley  went  away,  and  though  he  were 
chosen  an  assistant  yet  he  would  not  accept  it.  Some  of 
the  elders  went  to  his  house  to  deal  with  him.  His  answer 
was,  that  he  had  sufficient  reasons  to  excuse  and  warrant  this 
refusal,  which  he  did  not  think  fit  to  publish,  but  he  would 
impart  to  any  one  or  two  of  them  whom  they  should  appoint, 
which  he  did  accordingly.  The  elders  acquainted  the  Court 
with  what  they  had  done,  but  not  with  the  reasons  of  his 
refusal,  only  that  they  thought  them  not  sufficient.  The 
Court  sent  a  magistrate  and  two  deputies  to  desire  him  to 
come  to  the  Court,  for  as  a  counselor  he  was  to  assist  in  the 
General  Court.  The  next  day  he  came,  and  after  some 
excuse  he  consented  to  accept  the  place,  so  that  the  Court 
1  Maverick's  Description  of  N.  E.,  1660,  19. 


1642]    DUDLEY  CHARGED  WITH   PETTY  JEALOUSY    291 

would  declare  that  if  at  any  time  he  should  depart  out  of  the 
jurisdiction  (which  he  protested  he  did  not  intend),  no  oath, 
either  of  officer,  counselor,  or  assistant,  should  hold  him  in 
any  bond  where  he  stood. 

"  This  he  desired,  not  for  his  own  satisfaction,  but  that 
it  might  be  a  satisfaction  to  others  who  might  scruple  his 
liberty  herein.  After  much  debate,  the  Court  made  a  gen 
eral  order  which  gave  him  satisfaction."  l 

Robert  C.  Winthrop  seems  to  have  received  the  opinion 
that  Dudley  was  a  candidate  in  the  above  election  and  was 
defeated  by  Winthrop,  and  that  he  went  away  in  wrath 
although  he  was  chosen  to  a  third  place  in  the  government, 
which  he  would  not  accept.  It  is  quite  possible  that  he  is 
mistaken  in  this  opinion.  It  appears  in  the  same  Journal, 
page  *55,  that  Dudley,  who  had  now  arrived  at  the  age  of 
sixty-five  years,  began  to  feel  official  duty  to  be  a  burden 
(and  although  he  continued  years  after,  a  certain  special  free 
dom  was  granted  to  him),  for  less  than  a  year  before  he  had 
resigned  from  the  said  office  of  magistrate,  and  the  offer 
was  then  made  to  him  of  "  any  ease  and  liberty  that  his  age 
and  infirmities  might  stand  in  need  of."  It  may  have  been, 
and  probably  was,  a  question  of  infirmities  or  of  some  per 
sonal  consideration  entirely  apart  from  jealousy  of  Winthrop, 
or  rivalry,  or  any  feeling  on  his  part  of  want  of  appreciation 
of  him  by  the  people.  His  hold  upon  the  public  before, 
after,  and  during  this  period  are  a  sufficient  guarantee  to  us 
that  he  had  no  occasion  whatever  for  "  heartburning  "  over 
the  momentary  success  of  Winthrop,  to  which  good  fortune 
he  doubtless  heartily  contributed,  and  with  whom  he  had 
long  ceased  to  contend.  So  far  as  the  record  goes  they 
labored  together  as  the  leaders  of  the  commonwealth ;  as 
the  joint  leaders,  also,  of  a  political  party,  without  mean  and 
selfish  personal  ambition  for  office.  They  were  each  thought 
ful  only  of  the  prosperity  or  glory  of  Massachusetts.  Dud 
ley  had  known  too  much  of  the  fortunes  of  politics  to  show 
ill  temper  and  pout  like  a  silly  child  over  his  defeat  for  an 

1  R.  C.  Winthrop's  Life  and  Letters  of  John  Winthrop,  ii.  268,  269. 


292  THOMAS   DUDLEY  [CH.  xxv 

office  which  there  is  much  reason  to  believe  would  have  been 
a  burden  to  him.  It  is  noticeable  in  confirmation  of  this 
opinion  that,  "  after  much  debate,  the  Court  made  a  general 
order."  Which  order  evidently  was  intended  to  extend  his 
freedom  in  office  and  not  to  heal  any  petty  grievance,  arising 
from  envy,  over  the  fortunes  of  his  "  Brother  "  Winthrop. 

J.  B.  Moore,  in  his  "Memoirs  of  American  Governors," 
page  289,  alludes  to  this  subject,  but  it  does  not  seem  that 
the  interpretation  of  this  passage  from  the  Journal  which 
Robert  C.  Winthrop  has  arrived  at,  occurred  to  him,  for  he 
says,  "  Dudley  refused  to  accept  that  place  in  the  latter 
year,  unless  the  General  Court  would  give  him  liberty  to 
remove  from  their  jurisdiction  whenever  it  might  suit  his 
convenience,  without  being  bound  in  any  existing  oath  or 
regulation,  either  as  an  officer,  counselor,  or  assistant.  To 
these  conditions  the  General  Court  readily  assented." 

Moore  may  be  regarded  as  entirely  impartial  in  this  judg 
ment.  Finally,  nothing  ought  to  be  taken  as  mere  inference 
against  the  character  of  Dudley  without  positive  evidence, 
which  does  not  exist  in  this  case.  The  presumption  of  his 
innocence  of  such  petty  conduct  towards  his  great  associate, 
in  the  presence  of  the  Court,  remains  firm  and  unimpeach 
able. 


CHAPTER   XXVI 

THE  public  highways  received  the  attention  of  the  Gen 
eral  Court.  "  It  is  declared  by  this  Court,  that  the  selected 
townsmen  have  power  to  lay  out  particular  private  ways 
concerning  their  own  town  only,  so  as  no  damage  be  done  to 
any  man,  but  due  recompense  be  given  by  the  judgment  of 
said  townsmen." l  The  further  power  at  the  very  next  Court 
was  conferred  upon  the  selectmen,  sometimes  called  pruden 
tial  committee,  to  see  to  the  education  of  neglected  children, 
especially  that  they  have  ability  to  read  and  understand  the 
principles  of  religion  and  the  capital  laws  of  the  country.2 

It  would  be  interesting  to  follow  from  1633  the  powers  of 
selectmen  in  towns,  until  they  became,  as  at  present,  the 
complete  executive  authority  in  the  New  England  town, 
which  was  developed  from  each  of  these  little  villages,  begin 
ning  with  the  village  parish  government  as  found  in  Eng 
land.  So  strictly  is  this  true  that  in  many  of  the  towns  of 
Massachusetts  the  early  town  and  parish  records  are  united 
and  are  one  and  the  same. 

The  subject  of  the  Standing  Council,  or  Council  for  Life, 
which  was  never  composed  of  any  persons  except  Winthrop, 
Dudley,  the  governor  ex-officio,  and  later  Endicott,  was,  June 
14,  i642,3  apparently  brought  out  by  the  defeated  Belling- 
ham  faction  to  irritate  the  triumphant  party  of  Winthrop. 
For  when  Winthrop  succeeded  Bellingham,  "a  book  was 
brought  into  the  Court  wherein  the  institution  of  the  Stand 
ing  Council  was  pretended  to  be  a  sinful  innovation.  The 
governor  moved  to  have  the  contents  of  the  book  examined, 
and  then  if  there  appeared  cause,  to  inquire  after  the  author. 
But  the  greatest  part  of  the  Court  having  some  intimation 
1  Mass.  Col.  Rec.,  ii.  4.  2  Ib.,  ii.  6,  9.  8  Ib.,  ii.  5-21. 


294  THOMAS   DUDLEY  [CH.  xxvi 

of  the  author,  of  whose  honest  intentions  they  were  well 
persuaded,"  withheld  their  influence  against  the  book. 
"  Whereupon  it  was  found  to  have  been  made  by  Mr.  Sal 
tonstall,"  who  was  the  intimate  friend  of  Bellingham,  and 
usually  joined  him  with  the  popular  party  against  the  other 
magistrates.  It  may  be  that  for  this  reason  the  deputies 
felt  under  obligation  to  protect  Saltonstall  in  exercising  his 
freedom  in  abusing  the  council.  The  matter  is  quite  insig 
nificant,  since  the  council  had  already  been  shorn  of  its 
power.  The  book  had  found  its  way  into  the  hands  of  Dud 
ley,  who  had  prepared  an  answer  to  it.  "  The  Court  would 
not  agree  to  any  action  except  Saltonstall  were  first  acquit 
from  any  censure." 

There  were  various  excuses  made  explaining  his  intentions 
in  writing  the  book.  "As  that  the  council  was  instituted 
unwarily  to  satisfy  Vane's  desire,  etc.,  whereas  it  was  well 
known  to  many  in  the  Court,  as  themselves  affirmed,  that  it 
was  upon  the  advice  and  solicitation  of  the  elders,  and  after 
much  deliberation  from  Court  to  Court.  Other  passages 
there  were  also  which  were  very  unsound,  reproachful,  and 
dangerous,  and  was  manifested  by  an  answer  made  thereunto 
by  Dudley,  and  received  at  the  next  session  of  the  Court, 
and  by  some  observations  made  by  Mr.  Norris,  a  grave  and 
judicious  elder,  teacher  of  the  church  in  Salem  (and  with 
some  difficulty  read  also  in  Court)  who,  not  suspecting  the 
author,  handled  him  somewhat  sharply  according  to  the  merit 
of  the  matter."  1  Dudley  seems  to  have  taken  a  leading  part 
in  this  controversy  in  behalf  of  the  Standing  Council.  He 
convinced  Winthrop  that  the  book  was  "  unsound,  reproach 
ful,  and  dangerous,"  and  it  may  be  assumed  that  his  argu 
ment  had  a  strong  influence,  for  the  matter  was  referred  to 
the  elders,  with  the  following  result :  "  By  the  wisdom  and 
faithfulness  of  the  elders,  Mr.  Saltonstall  was  brought  to 
see  his  failings  in  that  treatise,  which  he  did  ingenuously 
acknowledge  and  bewail,  and  so  he  was  reconciled  with  the 
rest  of  the  magistrates."  2 

1  Winthrop,  ii.  #65.  a  Ib.,  ii.  *ii6. 


1642-43]  PROTECTIVE   MEASURES  295 

Some  of  the  arguments  are  preserved  in  Winthrop,  vol.  ii. 
pp.  *9,  *QI.  There  seems  to  be  no  copy  of  Dudley's  answer 
to  this  book,  which  is  much  to  be  lamented,  as  it  might 
throw  light  upon  the  pending  political  controversy. 

The  agitation  in  England  which  culminated  this  year  in 
civil  war  showed  itself  at  once  in  this  country.  An  attempt 
was  made  to  maintain  allegiance  to  the  king,  which  was  ren 
dered  futile  by  the  people.  Massachusetts  foresaw  at  once 
that  she  might  have  to  defend  herself,  both  against  foreign 
and  domestic  enemies,  and  particularly  against  the  royal 
party  in  England.  She  recognized  that  self-preservation  is 
the  first  consideration,  and  that  to  this  end  she  must  husband 
every  resource  and  become  as  independent  of  all  govern 
ments  and  peoples  as  her  circumstances  would  permit.  She 
has  told  her  own  troublous  story  in  the  following  pathetic 
words:  "This  Court,  taking  into  serious  consideration  the 
great  danger  that  this  commonweal  is  liable  unto  by  foreign 
and  domestic  foes,  which  we  have  just  cause  to  conceive 
will  be  ready,  as  opportunity  and  means  are  put  into  their 
hands  to  practice  against  us,  and  being  willing  to  lay  hold 
on,  and  use  all  such  means  as  God  shall  direct  us  unto,  as 
may  tend  to  the  raising  and  producing  such  materials 
amongst  ourselves  as  may  protect  the  making  of  gunpow 
der,  the  instrumental  means  that  all  nations  lay  hold  on  for 
their  preservation."1  Then  follows  in  the  order  directions 
that  every  plantation  shall  proceed  to  produce  saltpetre 
according  to  the  directions  therein  given,  placing  the  matter 
under  the  care  of  the  military,  that  it  may  be  executed 
promptly  and  faithfully. 

"  It  was  ordered  that  the  twenty-first  of  the  Fifth  Month 
should  be  kept  as  a  day  of  public  humiliation  throughout 
this  jurisdiction,  in  regard  of  our  own  straits,  and  the  foul 
sins  broken  out  amongst  us,  and  the  distractions  of  our 
native  country,  Ireland,  Holland,  and  the  other  parts  of 
Europe."  2 

This  order  shows  how  thoroughly  the  colonists  were  watch- 
1  Mass.  Col.  Rec.,  ii.  17,  29.  2  Ib.,  ii.  16. 


296  THOMAS   DUDLEY  [CH.  xxvi 

ing  the  struggle  in  Europe  and  the  advancement  of  liberty. 
Very  special  attention  was  given  by  the  Court  to  the  pro 
duction  of  leather  in  the  largest  possible  amount,  which 
indicates  that  they  already  felt  that  they  could  not  depend 
upon  foreign  commerce  for  the  essentials  of  life,  and  that  an 
early  severance  with  the  mother  country  was  even  now  loom 
ing  up  before  them. 

That  great  modern  system  or  artifice  known  as  the  political 
caucus  appears  in  the  following  order,  that  every  town  shall 
choose  one  or  two  freemen,  "  who  shall  meet  at  Salem  on  a 
certain  day,  and  shall  there  consider  and  agree"  upon  the 
most  able  and  fit  men  to  be  put  in  nomination  for  magistrates 
at  the  next  Court  of  Elections.  This  order  may  have  arisen, 
and  probably  did,  from  jealousy  of  the  magistrates. 

Commissioners  were  sent  on  the  8th  of  September,  1642, 
to  Miantonomoh,  with  certain  instructions  to  demand  satis 
faction  of  him  upon  twelve  points  set  forth  in  writing,  and 
among  these  the  most  prominent,  that  the  Narragansett 
Indians  have  conspired  with  other  sachems  in  making  war 
upon  the  English.  It  was  this  fear  and  dread  which  resulted 
in  the  destruction  of  Miantonomoh  the  next  year. 

How  important  this  matter  was  in  the  judgment  of  the 
colony  will  be  seen  by  the  following  direction  to  Mr.  Wan- 
nerton :  "  The  General  Court  holden  at  Boston,  the  8th  of 
September,  1642  (upon  creditable  information  of  a  general 
bloody  design  of  the  Indians  against  all  the  English  in  this 
country,  and  of  great  supply  of  powder  and  guns  which  they 
have  from  the  English  in  the  eastern  parts,  which  living 
alone  and  under  no  government,  cannot,  by  any  ordinary  way 
of  justice  be  punished  or  restrained),  have  given  power  and 
commission  to  you  to  make  seizure  of  all  such  powder." 
And  their  anxiety  is  further  manifest  as  to  the  plot  and  con 
spiracies  of  the  heathen  among  them,  for  they  issue  six  spe 
cific  directions  to  citizens  of  every  town  with  reference  to 
alarms  to  be  given  day  and  night,  places  for  retreat  for  wives 
and  children,  and  due  preparation  of  ammunition  fitting  them 
for  sudden  occasions.  "And  that  all  watches  throughout 


1642-43]  GOVERNMENT  OF   THE   COLLEGE  297 

this  country  be  set  at  sunset,  at  the  beat  of  the  drum,  and 
not  be  discharged  till  the  beat  of  the  drum  at  sunrising."  1 

The  following  was  ordered :  "  Whereas  by  the  order  of 
Court  in  the  Seventh  Month,  1636,  there  was  appointed  and 
named  six  magistrates,  and  six  elders,  to  order  the  college  of 
Cambridge,  of  which  twelve  somewhat  removed  out  of  this 
jurisdiction,  —  it  is  therefore  ordered  that  the  governor  and 
deputy  for  the  time  being,  and  all  the  magistrates  of  this 
jurisdiction,  etc.  .  .  .  shall  have  from  time  to  time  full  power 
and  authority  to  make  and  establish  all  such  orders,  statutes, 
and  constitutions,  as  they  shall  see  necessary  for  the  insti 
tuting,  guiding,  and  furthering  of  the  said  college,  and  the 
several  members  thereof  from  time  to  time  in  piety,  moral 
ity,  and  learning."  As  we  have  already  noticed,  Dudley  was 
a  perpetual  member  of  this  board  ever  after  the  founding 
of  the  college,  during  his  life.  Mr.  J.  A.  Doyle  has  taken 
occasion  to  say  that,  "  in  their  sobriety  of  thought  and  in 
their  manly  simplicity  and  force  of  language,  the  works  of 
Bradford  and  Winthrop  stand  out  as  noble  exceptions  to 
the  literature  of  Puritan  New  England."  2 

It  seems  to  us  that  he  might  well  have  included  the  writ 
ings  of  Dudley,  especially  his  letter  to  the  Countess  of  Lin 
coln.  Even  if  its  brevity  seems  to  exclude  it  from  the  larger 
works  of  literature,  composed  by  the  persons  mentioned, 
still  in  strength  of  English  and  clearness  of  statement  it 
seems  equal  to  the  best  work  of  either  of  them. 

The  most  memorable  event  in  the  year  1643  was  no  doubt 
the  political  confederation  of  the  four  principal  colonies  of 
New  England.  It  has  been  thought  that  this  confederacy 
was  suggested  by  that  of  the  Low  Countries.  However  that 
may  be,  it  was  the  Plymouth  Colony  which  called  the  atten 
tion  of  the  other  colonies  more  directly  to  this  subject. 

We  find  the  following  act  of  the  General  Court  on  the 
loth  of  May,  1643  :  "The  governor,  Mr.  Dudley,  Mr.  Brad- 
street,  Mr.  Treasurer,  Captain  Gibbons,  and  Mr,  Hawthorne 

1  Mass.  Col.  Rec.,  ii.  25,  26,  29. 

2  English  in  America,  i.  319. 


298  THOMAS   DUDLEY  [CH.  xxvi 

are  chosen  to  treat  with  our  friends  of  Connecticut,  New 
Haven,  and  Plymouth  about  a  confederacy  between  us." 
This  confederacy  was  the  prototype  and  first  beginning  of 
the  United  States  of  America. 

It  is  therefore  with  unfeigned  pride  and  satisfaction  that 
we  discover  the  name  of  Dudley  on  the  first  committee  at 
the  very  inception  of  this  remarkable  and  far-reaching  experi 
ment  in  government.  The  Articles  of  Confederation  were 
subscribed  on  the  iQth  of  May  by  the  commissioners,  save 
those  of  Plymouth,  who  subscribed  a  little  later  in  the  same 
year  after  consultation  with  the  colony  at  home. 

The  preamble  to  these  articles  is  as  follows  :  "  Whereas 
we  all  came  into  these  parts  of  America  with  one  and  the 
same  end  and  aim,  namely,  to  advance  the  kingdom  of  our 
Lord  Jesus  Christ,  and  to  enjoy  the  liberties  of  the  Gospel 
in  purity  with  peace ;  and  whereas  by  our  settling,  by  the 
wise  providence  of  God,  we  are  further  dispersed  upon  the 
seacoasts  and  rivers  than  was  at  first  intended,  so  that  we 
cannot,  according  to  our  desire,  with  convenience  communi 
cate  in  one  government  and  jurisdiction  ;  and  whereas  we 
live  encompassed  with  people  of  several  nations  and  strange 
languages,  which  hereafter  may  prove  injurious  to  us  or 
our  posterity ;  and  forasmuch  as  the  natives  have  formerly 
committed  sundry  insolences  and  outrages  upon  several 
plantations  of  the  English,  and  have  of  late  combined  them 
selves  against  us,  and  seeing  by  reason  of  the  sad  distrac 
tions  in  England  (which  they  have  heard  of),  and  by  which 
they  know  we  are  hindered,  both  from  that  humble  way  of 
seeking  advice,  and  reaping  those  comfortable  fruits  of  pro 
tection,  which  at  other  times  we  might  well  expect ;  we 
therefore  do  conceive  it  our  bounden  duty,  without  delay,  to 
enter  into  a  present  consociation  amongst  ourselves  for  mu 
tual  help  and  strength  in  all  future  concernment,  that,  as  in 
nation  and  religion,  so  in  other  respects,  we  be  and  continue 
one,  according  to  the  tenor  and  true  meaning  of  the  ensu 
ing  articles." l  Which  articles  were  eleven  in  number. 
1  Winthrop,  ii.  *ioi,  *io6. 


1642-43]  THE   CONFEDERACY   FORMED  299 

It  is  said  that  the  best  account  of  the  confederacy  is  in  Hub- 
bard's  "History  of  New  England."1 

The  people  of  the  several  nations  mentioned  in  this  pre 
amble  include  the  French  on  their  eastern  boundary,  the 
Dutch  on  their  western,  the  Indians  all  about  them ;  and  in 
their  thoughts,  although  not  expressed  in  the  preamble,  is  a 
dangerous  faction  in  the  mother  country,  which  is  liable  at 
any  time  to  exhibit  its  power  in  an  attempt  to  reduce  them 
to  obedience  to  royal  authority. 

The  colonies  were  represented  by  two  persons  from  each 
of  them,  like  the  several  state  representations  in  the  present 
Senate  of  the  United  States,  and  were  therefore  equal  in  the 
confederacy  in  the  matter  of  voting  and  in  power.  Massa 
chusetts  was  larger  in  population  and  in  wealth  than  all  the 
other  colonies  together;  her  moral  influence  had  greater 
weight  in  directing  the  action  of  the  confederacy  than  that 
of  any  other  colony,  a  prestige  which  she  has  maintained  far 
down  in  the  history  of  the  republic. 

Winthrop  was  chosen  president  at  the  first  session  of  the 
commissioners,  and  presided  over  the  doings  of  that  first  con 
gress.  He  was  again  chosen  president  of  the  confederacy 
in  the  year  1645,  an  honor  which  was  also  twice  conferred 
(namely  in  the  years  1647  and  1649)  upon  Thomas  Dudley. 
Thus  it  appears  that  either  Dudley  or  Winthrop  presided 
over  the  doings  of  this  congress  whenever  it  was  held  in 
Boston  during  their  lifetime,  and  that  no  one  else  attained 
to  this  honor.  This  is  another  confirmation  of  the  firmly 
settled  conviction  of  the  Massachusetts  people  that  Win 
throp  and  Dudley  were  their  two  foremost  men ;  and,  more 
over,  that  their  eminence  was  recognized  throughout  the 
other  colonies  and  had  a  national  significance ;  for  as 
between  themselves  they  each  received  this  honor  from  the 
United  Colonies  in  equal  and  even  measure. 

It  was  claimed  that  "the  four  jurisdictions  had  a  popula 
tion  of  twenty-four  thousand,  living  in  thirty-nine  towns,  in 
1642."  The  whole  plantation  was  on  this  tenth  day  of  May 
1  Mass.  Hist.  Coll.,  2d  series,  v.  465. 


300  THOMAS   DUDLEY  [CH.  xxvi 

divided  into  four  counties  containing  thirty  towns.  "  In 
September,  1642,  William  Arnold,  Robert  Cole,  William 
Carpenter,  and  Benedict  Arnold,  his  company  upon  their 
petition,1  were  taken  under  our  government."  "And  they 
are  to  see  to  keep  the  peace  in  their  lands."  z 

These  men  were  in  conflict  with  Samuel  Gorton  and  com 
pany  at  Pawtuxet,  R.  I.  Thus  says  S.  G.  Arnold:  "A 
foreign  jurisdiction  was  set  up  in  the  very  midst  of  the  infant 
colony,  which  greatly  increased  the  difficulties  of  its  exist 
ence,  and  continued  for  sixteen  years  to  harass  the  inhab 
itants  of  Providence."  It  was  the  established  course  of 
Massachusetts  in  other  places,  such  as  Maine,  New  Hamp 
shire,  Connecticut,  as  well  as  Rhode  Island,  to  receive  under 
her  jurisdiction  and  government  people  and  districts  of  ter 
ritory,  although  outside  strictly  of  her  charter  limits,  upon 
condition  that  such  people  or  some  portion  of  them  desired 
her  care  and  protection,  and  solemnly  covenanted  to  submit 
to  her  jurisdiction  and  her  laws. 

There  was  a  reasonable  cause  for  this.  In  the  midst  of 
enemies,  she  possessed  the  strongest  and  most  conservative 
paternal  government  in  New  England,  in  which  she  was 
most  strictly  the  representative  English  colony,  and  could 
not  fail  properly  to  take  the  deepest  interest,  and  even 
control,  in  neighboring  communities  in  which  at  any  time 
disturbances  might  occur,  the  direct  result  of  which  would 
be  injurious  to  Massachusetts. 

Neither  could  she  maintain  her  essential  ideas  in  politics 
and  religion  if  she  permitted  them  in  the  very  beginning  to 
be  conspicuously  assailed  and  remain  undefended  on  her 
border,  more  particularly  if  the  danger  proceeded  from  her 
own  disaffected  citizens,  who  had  entered  upon  another  juris 
diction  only  to  secure  a  stronger  vantage  ground  from  which 
to  attack  her. 

We  who  live  in  a  greater  light,  with  more  perfect  laws, 
claim  the  right  even  now  to  regulate  our  neighbors,  to  enforce 

1  See,  also,  R.  I.  Hist.  Soc.  Coll.,  ii.  101. 

2  Mass.  Col.  Rec.,  ii.  26,  27. 


1642-43]     MASSACHUSETTS   AND   HER  NEIGHBORS     301 

Monroe  doctrines  and  provisions  beyond  our  borders,  on  the 
ground  that  our  self-preservation  demands  the  exercise  of 
such  liberty.  Every  civilized  nation  upon  the  globe  assumes 
to  dictate  to  other  nations  a  policy  which  is  consistent  with 
its  own  alleged  interest  and  safety.  The  present  concert  of 
Europe  and  combination  of  the  great  powers  illustrates  this 
freedom  of  the  large  states  exercised  toward  the  small  ones 
in  their  own  interest. 

But  in  this  controversy  between  Massachusetts  and  cer 
tain  persons  in  Rhode  Island  the  position  of  the  colony  is 
far  stronger  ;  because  at  this  time  there  was  no  government 
at  Pawtuxet  which  anybody  recognized,  either  under  charter 
or  otherwise,  except  that  Plymouth  now  and  then  claimed 
jurisdiction  over  this  territory,  and  as  often  surrendered  it 
to  Massachusetts.  They  had,  as  Gorton  claimed,  an  alleged 
title  to  land  from  the  Indians,  and  pitched  their  tents  there 
without  authority  from  England.1 

Two  sachems,  Pumham  and  Sacononoco,  from  near  Paw 
tuxet,  submitted  themselves,  on  June  22,  to  the  jurisdiction 
of  Massachusetts,  in  a  writing  signed  by  them,  with  the  fol 
lowing  certificate  attached :  "  This  was  signed,  after  clear 
interpretation  of  every  particular  by  their  own  interpreter, 
Benedict  Arnold,  in  the  presence  of  us,  whose  names  are 
subscribed,  and  many  of  the  elders  and  others,"  —  John  Win- 
throp,  governor,  Thomas  Dudley,  Richard  Bellingham,  and 
others. 

Winthrop  says  :  "  Sacononoco  and  Pumham  having  under 
them  two  or  three  hundred  men,  finding  themselves  over 
borne  by  Miantonomoh,  the  sachem  of  Narragansett,  and 
Gorton  and  his  company,  .  .  .  did  desire  we  receive  them 
under  our  government,  ...  so  it  was  agreed  and  they  wrote 
to  Gorton  .  .  .  how  they  had  tendered  themselves  to  come 
under  our  jurisdiction,  and,  therefore,  if  they  had  anything 
to  allege  against  us  they  should  come  or  send  to  our  next 
Court.  They  invited  Miantonomoh,  who  came  to  Boston, 
and  being  questioned  in  open  court  in  public,  whether  he 
1  S.  G.  Arnold's  Hist,  of  R.  I.,  176. 


302  THOMAS   DUDLEY  [CH.  xxvi 

had  any  interest  in  the  said  two  sachems,  he  could  prove 
none.  Cutshamekin  also  in  his  presence  affirmed  that  he 
had  no  interest  in  them,  but  they  were  as  free  sachems  as 
himself." 

"  Gorton  and  his  company  sent  a  writing  to  our  Court,  of 
four  sheets  of  paper,  full  of  reproaches  against  our  magis 
trates,  elders  and  churches,  of  familistical  and  absurd  opin 
ions,  therein  they  justified  their  purchase  of  the  sachem's 
land,  and  professed  to  maintain  it  to  the  death."  l 

Winthrop  says  further  :  "  Upon  the  complaint  of  the  Eng 
lish  of  Pawtuxet,  near  Providence,  who  had  submitted  to  our 
jurisdiction,  and  the  two  Indian  sachems  there,  of  the  con 
tinual  injuries  offered  them  by  Gorton  and  his  company,  the 
General  Court  sent  for  them,  by  letter  only,  not  in  way  of 
command,  to  come  answer  the  complaints,  and  sent  them 
letters  of  safe  conduct.  But  they  answered  our  messages 
disdainfully,  refused  to  come,  but  sent  two  letters  full  of 
blasphemy  against  the  churches  and  magistracy,  and  other 
provoking  terms,  slighting  all  we  could  do  against  them. 

"  So  that  having  sent  three  times,  and  receiving  no  other 
answer,  we  took  testimonies  against  them,  both  of  English 
and  Indians,  and  determined  to  proceed  with  them  by  force. 
And  because  they  had  told  our  messengers  the  last  time, 
that  if  we  had  anything  to  say  to  them,  if  we  would  come 
to  them,  they  would  do  us  justice  therein,  therefore  we  wrote 
to  them  to  this  effect,  viz. :  — 

"To  the  end  that  our  justice  and  moderation  might  appear 
to  all  men,  we  would  condescend  so  far  to  them  as  to  send 
commissioners  to  hear  their  answers  and  allegations,  and  if 
thereupon  they  would  give  us  such  satisfaction  as  should  be 
just,  we  would  leave  them  in  peace,  if  otherwise,  we  would 
proceed  by  force  of  arms ;  and  signified  withal  that  we  would 
send  a  sufficient  guard  with  our  commissioners.  For  seeing 
they  would  not  trust  themselves  with  us,  upon  our  safe-con 
duct,  we  had  no  reason  to  trust  ourselves  with  them,  upon 
their  bare  courtesy,  and  accordingly  we  sent  the  next  week, 
1  Winthrop,  ii.  *I2O,  *i2i. 


1642-43]  CAPTURE   OF   GORTON  303 

Captain  George  Cook,  Lieutenant  Atherton,  and  Edward 
Johnson,  with  commission  and  instructions  (the  instruc 
tions  would  here  be  inserted  at  large),  and  with  them  forty 
soldiers."  l 

"The  commissioner  came  to  Providence  and  found  the 
party  of  Gorton  all  in  one  house,  which  they  had  made 
musket  proof.  They  undertook  to  parley,"  and  then  offered 
to  refer  their  cause  to  arbitrators.  The  Massachusetts 
agents  declined  the  arbitration  for  five  reasons,  which  they 
set  forth.2 

A  skirmish  took  place  thereupon  between  the  Boston  party 
and  Gorton  and  his  followers,  which  resulted  in  the  defeat  of 
the  latter.  Only  three  of  the  Gorton  party  escaped ;  he  and 
the  rest  were  captured,  taken  to  Boston,  and  committed  to 
prison.3  Many  attempts  have  been  made  in  recent  times  to 
defend  Gorton,  and  to  present  him  as  one  of  those  unfor 
tunate  men  who,  being  ahead  of  their  age,  and  possessed 
powerfully  with  advanced  and  progressive  thought,  were  con 
sequently  abhorred  and  persecuted  by  the  Puritans,  and  are 
therefore  justly  entitled  to  be  canonized  and  adjudged  heroes 
in  a  humane  and  liberal  era. 

Compassionate  men  have,  consequently,  too  often  con 
demned  the  action  of  the  government  of  Massachusetts  in 
the  Gorton  affair.  It  is  remarkable,  also,  that  while  Gorton 
has  received  so  much  attention,  the  little  book  by  Governor 
Edward  Winslow,  which  is  an  original  and  authoritative 
account  from  the  Puritan  side  of  the  case,  has  not  until 
recently  been  republished.  Without  this  book  the  two  sides 
can  never  be  fairly  presented.  It  is  at  present  so  rare  that 
it  can  be  consulted  only  by  a  very  few  persons.  The  title  of 
this  book  is  "Hypocrisie  Unmasked."4  Even  Judge  Staples 
had  not  found  this  book,  nor  had  the  use  of  it,  in  preparing 
his  edition  of  Gorton's  "  Simplicitie's  Defence." 

1  Winthrop,  ii.  *I37. 

2  Ib.,  ii.  *I39;  Coll.  R.  I.  Hist.  Soc.,  ii.  III. 
s  Coll.  R.  I.  Hist.  Soc.,  ii.  190-202. 

*  Moore's  Am.  Governors,  123,  124. 


304  THOMAS    DUDLEY  [CH.  xxvi 

A  stimulating  inquiry  is  naturally  awakened,  why  so  many 
unimportant  books  written  at  that  period  have  been  repro 
duced  with  so  much  care  and  expense,  while  "  Hypocrisie 
Unmasked  "  has  been  suffered  to  go  almost  out  of  existence 
until  recently. 

We  are  informed  in  "  Hypocrisie  Unmasked  "  that  "  Gor 
ton  lived  for  a  time  at  Plymouth,1  where  his  behavior  was  so 
turbulent  and  offensive  both  to  the  magistrates  and  others, 
as  they  were  necessitated  to  drive  him  out  of  their  juris 
diction.  From  thence  he  went  to  Rhode  Island,  where  he 
began  to  raise  sedition  and  to  make  a  party  against  the  au 
thority  there ;  for  which  he  was  apprehended  and  whipped, 
and  so  sent  away.  From  thence  (with  some  others  whom 
he  had  gathered  to  his  part)  he  removed  to  Providence, 
where  Mr.  Roger  Williams  then  lived.  He  (with  some 
others)  opposed  his  sitting  down  there  as  an  inhabitant,  only 
in  regard  of  his  present  distress,  they  gave  way  for  his  abode 
for  a  time.  But  being  once  housed,  he  soon  drew  so  great  a 
party  to  him,  as  it  was  beyond  the  power  of  Mr.  Williams 
and  his  party  to  drive  them  out,  or  to  rule  them  there ;  as 
both  parties  came  armed  into  the  field  each  against  other, 
and  had  fought  it  out,  had  not  Mr.  Williams  used  means  for 
pacification."  2 

"  Hereupon  many  of  the  chief  of  Providence  sent  mes 
sengers  with  a  letter  to  the  governor  and  council  of  the 
Massachusetts,  desiring  aid  against  Gorton  and  his  company, 
but  they  were  answered,  that  not  being  within  our  jurisdic 
tion  nor  confederation,  we  had  no  ground  to  interpose  in 
their  quarrels. 

"  Soon  after,  some  of  those  men  tendered  themselves  and 
their  lands  to  come  under  our  government  and  were  received. 
.  .  .  The  two  sachems  were  as  free  as  Miantonomoh,  but  in 
awe  of  him.  Gorton  and  Miantonomoh  conspired  to  cheat 

1  Hypocrisie  Unmasked,  I ;  Morton's  New  England's  Memorial,  136- 
138,  153- 

2  Letter  of  Williams  to  Winthrop,  March  8,  1646,  Pub.  Narr.  Club. 
vi.  141,  142. 


1643-46]  THE   CASE   AGAINST   GORTON  305 

Pumham  out  of  his  land.  They  secured  his  mark,  but  he 
refused  the  consideration  when  tendered  for  the  land,  which 
in  Indian  custom  binds  the  bargain. 

"  And  Gorton  and  Miantonomoh  abuse  the  Indians  by 
taking  possession  of  the  land.  And  the  Indians  in  distress 
tender  their  lands  and  themselves  to  Massachusetts.  Mian 
tonomoh  appeared  before  the  Massachusetts  Court  in  answer 
to  summons,  and  claimed  these  sachems  to  be  his  vassals,  but 
it  appeared  clearly  both  by  writing  from  Mr.  Williams,  and 
the  testimony  of  some  other  English  in  those  parts,  and  of 
divers  other  Indians  no  way  related  to  them,  that  they  were 
free  sachems ;  so  as  Miantonomoh  having  nothing  to  reply, 
the  Court  received  the  two  Indian  sachems  with  their  sub 
jects  and  lands  under  the  government  and  protection  of  the 
Massachusetts ;  and  upon  that  writ  to  our  neighbors  of  Provi 
dence,  intimating  the  same  to  them,  and  advising  Gorton 
and  his  company,  that  if  they  had  any  just  title  to  the  land 
they  possessed,  they  should  come,  or  send  some  to  show  the 
same  to  the  Court  and  offered  them  safe-conduct.  They 
of  Massachusetts  waited  under  the  constant  abuse  of  Gorton 
against  state  and  church  one  half  year,  and  then  took  the 
advice  of  the  commissioners  [of  the  United  Colonies],  who 
upon  testimony  of  their  insolent  and  injurious  courses,  and 
perusal  of  the  letter  they  sent  to  us,  left  them  to  us  to  pro 
ceed  according  to  justice.1 

"  Arbitration  was  impossible,  first  because  they  were  in 
our  power,  second,  because  we  were  not  parties,  again  they 
were  no  state  or  body  politic,  but  a  few  fugitives  living 
without  law  or  government,  and  so  not  honorable  for  us  to 
join  with  them  in  such  a  way  of  reference."  Mr.  Gorton 
came  to  the  church  in  Boston  and  gave  John  Cotton  some 
of  his  original  thoughts  as  follows  :  "  That  in  the  church 
now,  there  was  nothing  but  Christ,  so  that  all  our  ordi 
nances,  ministers,  sacraments,  and  so  forth  were  but  men's 
inventions,  for  show  and  pomp,  and  no  other  than  those 
silver  shrines  of  Diana."  He  said  also  "  that  if  Christ  live 
1  Hypocrisie  Unmasked,  2,  3,  4. 


306  THOMAS   DUDLEY  [CH.  xxvi 

eternally,  then  he  died  eternally,"  and  other  speeches  of  like 
kind.  He  thought  that  "  Christ  was  incarnate  in  Adam  and 
was  the  image  of  God  when  Adam  was  created."  l 

"Their  plea:  i,  Not  within  our  jurisdiction.  Ans.,  Were 
at  least  within  the  jurisdiction  of  our  confederates  who  had 
referred  them  to  us.  If  they  were  within  no  jurisdiction, 
then  was  there  none  to  complain  to  for  redress  of  our  injuries 
in  way  of  ordinary  justice,  and  then  we  had  no  way  of  relief 
but  by  force  of  arms. 

"  2d,  As  to  persecution,  we  did  not  meddle  with  their  con 
sciences  except  as  they  had  discharged  them  at  us. 

"  3d,  As  to  the  Indian  lands,  our  title  appeared  good." 

The  sentences  given  to  Gorton  and  the  others  were  in 
part  as  follows  :  "And  to  wear  an  iron  chain  upon  one  leg." 
We  have  introduced  this  quotation  because  it  is  often  said 
that  they  were  loaded  with  heavy  irons,  but  it  appears  from 
this  that  it  was  only  a  chain.2  Winslow  says  further,  "  We 
sent  for  their  cattle  to  pay  expenses,  but  left  every  of  them 
a  part  for  the  support  of  their  families."  3  Governor  Wins- 
low  asserts  that  Gorton  was  "  opposed  to  magistrates  every 
where,4  also  that  he  was  against  churches,  ministers,  the 
Word  of  God,  sacraments,  repentance,  and  against  Jesus 
Christ  himself."  5  When  Gorton  had  been  whipped  by  order 
of  Coddington,  he  said  "  Christ  Jesus  had  suffered."  6  Wins- 
low  says  further  that  Miantonomoh  had  no  right  to  the  land 
as  shown  in  Boston,  and  was  not  Prince  of  those  parts.7  He 
says  that  there  was  no  ransom  by  the  Narragansetts  offered 
for  Miantonomoh,8  and  that  Miantonomoh  was  put  to  death 
in  a  house  and  not  on  a  marsh,  as  falsely  related  by  Gorton.9 

The  record  of  the  commissioners  of  the  United  Colonies 
on  the  subject  of  Gorton,  referred  to  above,  is  as  follows  : 
"  Whereas  complaints  have  been  made  against  Samuel  Gor 
ton  and  his  company,  and  some  of  them  weighty,  and  of 

1  Winthrop,  ii.  *I43.     See,  also,  Coll.  R.  I.  Hist.  Soc.,  ii.  236-240. 

2  See  Hypocrisie  Unmasked,  8.     They  had  no  secure  prisons. 

»  Ib.,  9.  4  Ib.,  43.  6  Ib.,  47-49-  6  Ib->  53- 

7  Ib.,  69,  8  Ib.,  74.  9  Ib.,  80. 


1643-46]  WINSLOW'S   TESTIMONY  307 

great  consequence.  And  whereas,  the  said  Gorton  and  the 
rest  have  been  formerly  sent  for,  and  now  lately  by  the  Gen 
eral  Court  of  Massachusetts  with  a  safe-conduct  both  for 
the  coming  and  returning,  that  they  might  give  answer  and 
satisfaction  wherein  they  have  done  wrong.  If  yet  they 
shall  stubbornly  refuse,  the  commissioners  of  the  United 
Colonies  think  fit  that  the  magistrates  in  the  Massachusetts 
proceed  against  them  according  to  what  they  shall  find  just ; 
and  the  rest  of  the  jurisdiction  will  approve  and  concur  in 
what  shall  be  so  warrantably  done,  as  if  their  commission 
ers."  i 

The  fact  that  the  commissioners  of  the  United  Colonies 
"  think  fit  that  the  magistrates  in  Massachusetts  proceed 
against  "  Gorton  and  his  company  furnishes  a  strong  sup 
port  to  the  action  of  the  colony.  These  colonies  were  disin 
terested.  The  able  commissioners  from  the  other  colonies 
are  joined  with  those  of  Massachusetts  in  review  of  all  the 
facts  and  particulars  of  this  disagreeable  business,  at  the 
very  time  and  in  the  midst  of  the  turmoil,  and  the  character 
of  these  men  and  the  dignity  of  this  court  ought  to  lift  this 
whole  affair  out  of  the  disgrace  which  is  attempted  in  recent 
times  to  be  heaped  upon  Massachusetts  alone,  fastening  upon 
her,  so  far  as  this  influence  reaches  from  modern  critics,  the 
charge  of  petty  tyranny,  bigotry,  and  selfishness.2  Win  slow 
was  one  of  the  commissioners  of  the  United  Colonies  from 
Plymouth,  before  whom  the  case  of  Gorton  was  considered. 
This  fact  increases  our  confidence  in  his  knowledge  and 
judgment  respecting  the  facts  at  issue.  He  was  a  party 
engaged  in  making  the  record  of  the  confederacy  already 
quoted.  He  was  especially  qualified  from  his  judicial  stand 
point  to  write  "  Hypocrisie  Unmasked,"  which  book  contains 
the  force  of  "his  eminent  character  for  ability  and  integrity, 
as  well  as  the  great  weight  of  his  position,  all  of  which 

1  Acts  of  the  Commissioners  of  the  United  Colonies,  Plymouth  Col. 
Rec.,  ix.  12. 

2  Moore  says  that  Winslow  had  "  a  standing  such  as  no  other  New 
England  man  enjoyed."    (Mem.  Am.  Governors,  129.) 


3o8  THOMAS   DUDLEY  [CH.  xxvi 

things,  set  off  against  the  capricious  character  of  Gorton, 
leave  little  to  be  desired  in  defense  of  the  Puritans. 

In  order  fairly  to  consider  the  incursion  of  Massachusetts 
soldiers  into  Rhode  Island,  and  the  claim  of  jurisdiction  of 
the  former  colony  there,  we  must  first  divest  our  minds  of 
the  present  hard  and  fast  State  lines,  and  while  regarding, 
indeed,  the  charter  rights  of  that  period,  we  must  consider 
that  Gorton  and  his  company  were  only  a  few  fugitives  liv 
ing  without  charter  law,  and  if  not  within  the  jurisdiction  of 
Massachusetts  or  Plymouth,  they  were  within  no  jurisdic 
tion  this  side  of  England. 

We  ought  to  remember,  also,  that  the  commissioners 
claimed  that  Gorton  and  his  followers  were  within  the  juris 
diction  of  their  confederates,  and  that  they  were  thus  subject 
to  their  government. 

The  records  of  the  commissioners  of  the  United  Colonies 
show  that  while  Plymouth  claimed  jurisdiction  over  the  terri 
tory  of  Rhode  Island,  she  also  approved  of  the  conduct  of 
Massachusetts  in  dealing  with  Gorton. 

We  have  entered  very  fully  into  this  Gorton  affair  because 
Winthrop  and  Dudley  were  the  prominent  men  who  acted 
for  and  in  behalf  of  Massachusetts  in  these  matters,  both 
in  the  General  Court  and  at  the  session  of  the  confederacy 
of  United  Colonies.  If,  therefore,  there  is  any  injustice  or 
wrong-doing  chargeable  to  Massachusetts  in  its  treatment  of 
Gorton,  Dudley  must  be  credited  with  a  large  share  in  it. 

Massachusetts,  during  all  that  early  formative  period  from 
1630  to  1653,  is  the  standard  of  substantial,  firmly  knit  gov 
ernment,  obedient  to  the  majesty  of  law,  of  order,  and  of 
supreme  authority.  She  laid  the  foundation  of  her  govern 
ment  on  her  charter  on  the  common  law  of  England,  but  she 
recognized  the  irresistible  power  of  righteousness,  of  the 
higher  law  as  revealed  in  the  Holy  Scriptures,  and  sought 
always  to  be  guided  by  those  persons  who  were  most  learned 
and  best  qualified  to  instruct  her. 

Dudley  was,  as  we  have  said,  a  foremost  leader  in  this 
ideal  method  of  government,  possessed  of  an  unbounded 


1643-46]         THE   MISSION   OF   MASSACHUSETTS  309 

faith  that  they  were  building  a  permanent  structure  which 
would  be  remarkable  for  liberal  political  qualities,  mingled 
with  a  strong  Christian  element,  which  could  not  fail  to  be 
the  greatest  blessing  to  mankind.  This  was  not  a  mere 
vision.  It  is  quite  evident  that  the  mission  of  Massachu 
setts  as  a  model  in  government  in  New  England  had  a  con 
trolling  influence  in  bringing  order  out  of  chaos,  of  preserv 
ing  from  anarchy  the  settlements  about  her ;  and  that  those 
States  which  are  always  manifesting  unkindness  towards 
her  through  the  jealousy  of  their  citizens,  for  intermeddling 
early  in  their  affairs,  have  more  reason  to  be  grateful  to  her, 
that  through  her  influence  they  were  led  forth,  some  of 
them  slowly  indeed,  to  stable  government  and  honorable 
places  finally  in  the  sisterhood  of  States. 


CHAPTER  XXVII 

WE  have  already  observed  that  the  General  Court  was 
fearful  of,  and  indeed  expected,  a  general  uprising  of  Indians 
under  the  leadership  of  Miantonomoh,  the  information  of 
such  a  conspiracy  having  for  a  long  time  been  reaching  them 
through  the  different  colonies  and  the  friendly  Indians  ;  and 
they  had  placed  the  colony  on  a  war  footing  and  put  on 
watches  night  and  day.  Miantonomoh  made  war  upon 
Uncas,  the  sachem  of  the  Mohegans,  without  giving  notice 
of  his  intention.  Uncas  was  victorious  in  the  battle  and 
captured  him,  and  by  the  rules  of  Indian  warfare  his  life 
was  forfeited  and  he  was  at  the  mercy  of  Uncas.  Winthrop 
says  :  "  The  news  of  Miantonomoh' s  captivity  coming  to 
Providence,  Gorton  and  his  company,  who  had  bought  of 
him  the  lands  belonging  to  the  sachems  who  were  come 
under  our  jurisdiction,  wrote  a  letter  to  Uncas,  willing  him 
to  deliver  their  friend  Miantonomoh,  and  threatened  him 
with  the  power  of  the  EnglisK  if  he  refused,  and  they  sent 
their  letter  in  the  name  of  the  governor  of  Massachusetts." 
This  use  of  the  governor's  name  seems  to  have  been  a  for 
gery  on  the  part  of  Gorton.  "Upon  this  Uncas  carries 
Miantonomoh  to  Hartford  to  take  the  advice  of  the  magis 
trates  there,  and  at  Miantonomoh's  earnest  entreaty  he  left 
him  with  them,  yet  as  a  prisoner.  They  kept  him  under 
guard,  but  used  him  very  courteously,  and  so  he  continued 
until  the  commissioners  of  the  United  Colonies  met  at  Bos 
ton,  who,  taking  into  serious  consideration  what  was  safest 
and  best  to  be  done,  were  all  of  opinion  that  it  would  not  be 
safe  to  set  him  at  liberty,  neither  had  we  sufficient  grounds 
for  us  to  put  him  to  death.  In  this  difficulty  we  called  in  five 
of  the  most  judicious  elders  (it  being  in  the  time  of  the  Gen- 


1 643]  DEATH   OF  MIANTONOMOH  311 

eral  Assembly  of  the  elders),  and  propounding  the  case  to 
them  then,  all  agreed  that  he  ought  to  be  put  to  death."  .  .  . 
It  was  agreed  that  the  commissioners  from  Connecticut 
"  should  send  for  Uncas  and  tell  him  of  our  determination, 
that  Miantonomoh  should  be  delivered  to  him  again,  and 
he  should  put  him  to  death  so  soon  as  he  came  within  his 
own  jurisdiction,  and  that  two  English  should  go  along  with 
him  to  see  the  execution,  and  that  if  any  Indians  should 
invade  him  for  it,  we  would  send  men  to  defend  him.  If 
Uncas  should  refuse  to  do  it,  then  Miantonomoh  should 
be  sent  in  a  pinnace  to  Boston,  there  to  be  kept  until  fur 
ther  consideration.  The  reasons  of  this  proceeding  with 
him  were  these  :  i.  It  was  now  clearly  discovered  to  us  that 
there  was  a  general  conspiracy  among  the  Indians  to  cut  off 
all  the  English,  and  that  Miantonomoh  was  the  head  and 
contriver  of  it.  2.  He  was  a  turbulent  and  proud  spirit,  and 
would  never  be  at  rest.  3.  Although  he  had  promised  us 
in  the  open  court  to  send  the  Pequot  to  Uncas,  who  had 
shot  him  in  the  arm  with  intent  to  have  killed  him  (which 
was  by  the  procurement  of  Miantonomoh,  as  it  did  probably 
appear),  yet  in  his  way  homeward  he  killed  him.  4.  He 
beat  one  of  Pumham's  men  and  took  away  his  wampum,  and 
then  bid  him  go  and  complain  to  the  Massachusetts."  l  It 
appears  that  Miantonomoh  was,  as  directed,  slain  by  Uncas 
in  the  presence  of  the  two  Englishmen.  Governor  Wins- 
low  differs,  in  "  Hypocrisie  Unmasked,"  in  his  description 
as  to  the  manner  of  execution  from  the  usual  account  of  it, 
which  he  says  was  Gorton's  story. 

It  is  only  just  in  this  case  to  the  United  Colonies  to  pre 
sent  their  own  decree  from  their  own  records,  which  is  as 
follows :  "  The  commissioners  apparently  see  that  Uncas 
cannot  be  safe  while  Miantonomoh  lives,  but  that  either  by 
secret  treachery  or  open  force  his  life  will  be  still  in  danger. 
Wherefore  they  think  he  may  justly  put  such  a  false  and 
bloodthirsty  enemy  to  death,  but  in  his  own  jurisdiction,  not 
in  the  English  plantations,  and  advising  that  in  the  manner 
1  Winthrop,  ii.  *I33,  *I34. 


3i2  THOMAS   DUDLEY  [CH.  xxvn 

of  his  death  all  mercy  and  moderation  be  shown  contrary  to 
the  practice  of  the  Indians  who  exercise  tortures  and  cru 
elty."  l 

Very  bitter  reflections  have  been  made  in  recent  years, 
particularly  by  the  admirers  of  Gorton,  upon  the  action  taken 
by  the  commissioners  of  the  United  Colonies  in  the  case  of 
Miantonomoh. 

It  is  important  to  note  in  the  very  beginning  that  his  life 
was  forfeited  to  Uncas  in  open  war,  and  next  to  observe 
that  the  United  Colonies,  not  Massachusetts  alone,  declare 
him  to  be  "a  false  and  bloodthirsty  enemy."  That  they 
have  not  the  specific  charges  and  evidence  before  the  com 
missioners  to  draw  a  clear  indictment  against  him,  and  thus 
to  arraign  him  and  try  him,  is  no  part  of  this  case. 

They  were  not  constituted  as  a  court  for  such  a  purpose, 
but  they  had  had  a  long  acquaintance  with  him,  such  a  know 
ledge  of  him  and  such  direct  reports  from  many  sources, 
which  Winthrop  declares  to  have  been  reliable,  that  they 
certainly  had  a  sufficient  cause  to  turn  him  over  to  Uncas, 
with  a  provision  that  white  men  should  see  to  it  that  no 
barbarous  cruelty  was  inflicted  upon  him.  It  is  necessary, 
in  order  to  do  justice  to  these  men,  to  consider  how  many 
petty  crimes  and  what  small  matters  were  then  in  Christian 
lands  liable  to  capital  penalty. 

They  had  lived  under4  laws  in  England  which  had  pro 
visions  for  the  death  penalty  attached  to  more  than  forty 
crimes.2  Human  life  was  not  then  regarded  as  important 
and  sacred  as  it  now  is,  or  ought  to  be.  And  while  the  white 
men  in  New  England  exercised  in  general  a  remarkable  for 
bearance  and  kindness  toward  the  Indians,  properly  enough 
their  lives  were  not  more  important  than  those  of  the  white 
men  of  the  colony ;  and  if  they  were  well  satisfied  that  an 
outbreak  on  the  part  of  the  Indians  was  at  hand,  with  Mian 
tonomoh  at  the  head  of  it,  taking  the  part  which  King  Philip 

1  Plymouth  Colony  Records,  ix.,  Acts  of  the  Commissioners  of  the 
United  Colonies,  u,  12. 

2  W.  D.  Northend's  Bay  Colony,  96-98. 


1643]  THE  JUDGMENT   OF   THE   ELDERS  313 

did  later,  and  they  assure  us  with  all  the  combined  intelli 
gence  and  character  of  all  the  colonies  that  such  was  the 
case,  then  they  were  justified  in  extreme  measures  as  a  mat 
ter  of  self-preservation,  and  in  doing  the  greatest  good  to 
the  most  important  numbers  and  persons. 

We  ought  certainly,  while  we  do  justice  to  all,  not  to  let 
our  sympathies,  even  for  the  ideal  noble  red  men,  betray  us 
into  a  cruel  coldness  against  our  fathers  in  the  struggles  in 
which  they  were  engaged  and  in  the  perils  to  which  they 
were  exposed,  with  the  regions  peopled  with  savages  in  front 
of  them,  the  ocean  behind  them,  severed,  as  they  were,  from 
all  hope  of  support  or  protection  from  their  mother  country. 
They  certainly  may  be  excused  for  having  allowed  some 
things,  no  occasion  for  which  has  ever  risen  in  our  national 
history  since,  and  never  will  again. 

The  elders,  it  seems,  agreed  that  under  the  Mosaic  law 
Miantonomoh's  life  was  forfeited.  We  are  not  informed 
under  what  provision  of  that  law  they  arrived  at  that  opinion. 
There  is  no  ground  to  impeach  their  judgment  without  more 
knowledge  of  the  facts  presented  to  them,  or  to  assail  now 
that  code  which  belonged  to  a  very  early  age  in  human  his 
tory,  and  which  the  fathers,  however  ignorantly,  believed  to 
be  absolutely  binding  upon  them  in  letter  and  spirit.  It  is 
interesting  to  note  how  many  red  men  and  white  men  of 
that  period  lost  their  lives  for  the  most  trivial  offenses,1  or 
for  none  at  all,  even  this  humane  age  recalling  with  little  or 
no  interest  the  story  of  their  destruction,  while  friendship 
for  Gorton  and  for  the  heroes  of  Rhode  Island,  the  alleged 
home  of  soul  liberty  and  unequaled  personal  freedom,  has 

1  The  persons  who  are  so  disturbed  over  the  conduct  of  the  Puritans 
in  dealing  with  Miantonomoh  show  no  interest  in  the  share  Williams 
took  in  the  execution  of  the  Indian  Chuff,  August  25,  1676,  after  King 
Philip's  war  was  ended  and  all  danger  from  Chuff  had  departed  with 
it.  Nor  are  they  troubled  in  conscience  that  Williams  shared  in  the 
proceeds  of  the  sale  of  Indian  captives  in  that  war.  Not  that  any 
action  of  Williams  is  an  excuse  for  the  Puritans,  but  it  only  is  evidence 
that  very  good  men  at  that  time  did  things  our  humane  age  cannot 
approve.  (Knowles's  Memoir  of  Roger  Williams,  347,  348.) 


314  THOMAS   DUDLEY  [CH.  xxvn 

exaggerated  the  importance  of  Miantonomoh  in  history, 
all  the  more  because  of  the  assumption  that  Miantonomoh 
suffered  at  the  hands  of  the  English  from  the  dislike  which 
they  bore  towards  Gorton  and  everybody  else  who  was  his 
friend  or  ally,  an  hypothesis  which  is  not  proven  and  can 
not  be  maintained  with  any  success.  As  for  the  share  which 
Dudley  had  in  all  this  business,  while  we  cannot  commend 
all  the  action  taken  upon  the  highest  Christian  ideals,  yet 
we  may  well  believe  that  he  adopted  that  expedient  and  that 
judgment  in  the  case  which,  according  to  the  light  he  had, 
his  conscience  approved,  and  there  we  leave  him. 

As  early  as  1634  a  very  great  difference  arose  between 
the  governor  and  assistants  on  the  one  side,  and  the  deputies, 
who  were  more  numerous,  on  the  other,  upon  the  question 
whether  any  legislative  action  on  the  part  of  one  might  be 
properly  and  legally  prevented  and  thwarted  by  the  other. 
This  aroused  that  ancient  jealousy  which  in  these  modern 
times  always  exists  on  the  part  of  the  common  people 
towards  those  in  authority  on  the  one  side,  and  on  the  part 
of  those  in  more  stable  position  and  long-delegated  author 
ity,  lest  little  by  little  their  prerogatives  may  be  reduced  or 
altogether  taken  away.1 

This  question  took  the  form  of  the  negative  voice  of  the 
magistrates,  and  reappeared  in  a  more  vigorous  form  in  1643. 
But  we  must  begin  by  an  earlier  explanation  of  a  suit,  out  of 
which  came  most  important  results.  Winthrop  says,  "At 
the  same  General  Court  there  fell  out  a  great  business  upon 
a  very  small  occasion,  Anno  1636,  there  was  a  stray  sow  in 
Boston,  which  was  brought  to  Captain  Keayne  :  he  had  it 
cried  divers  times,  and  divers  came  to  see  it,  but  none  made 
claim  to  it  for  near  a  year.  He  kept  it  in  his  yard  with  a 
sow  of  his  own.  Afterwards  one  Sherman's  wife  having  lost 
such  a  sow  laid  claim  to  it,  but  came  not  to  see  it,  till  Captain 
Keayne  had  killed  his  own  sow.  After  being  shown  the 
stray  sow  and  finding  it  to  have  other  marks  than  she  had 
claimed  her  sow  by,  she  gave  out  that  he  had  killed  her  sow. 
1  Winthrop,  i.  *I4I. 


1 643]  THE   NEGATIVE  VOICE  315 

The  noise  hereof  being  spread  about  the  town,  the  matter 
was  brought  before  the  elders  of  the  church  as  a  case  of 
offense ;  many  witnesses  were  examined  and  Captain  Keayne 
was  cleared."  She  then  brought  the  case  before  the  Inferior 
Court  of  Boston,  and  Captain  Keayne  was  cleared  again. 
Then  it  came  before  the  General  Court,  seven  days  were 
spent  in  the  trial  of  the  case,  and  since  there  were  nine 
magistrates  and  thirty  deputies  no  sentence  could  pass  with 
out  the  greater  number  of  both,  and  neither  party  had  them. 
"  For  there  were  for  the  plaintiff  two  magistrates  and  fifteen 
deputies,  and  for  the  defendant  seven  magistrates  and  eight 
deputies."  And  because  there  was  such  laboring  in  the 
country  upon  a  false  supposition,  that  the  magistrate's  nega 
tive  voice  stopped  the  plaintiff  in  the  case  of  the  sow,  one  of 
the  magistrates  (Winthrop)  published  a  declaration  of  the 
necessity  of  upholding  the  same.1  Winthrop  says  in  1643, 
the  sow  business  not  yet  being  digested  in  the  country,  and 
many  of  the  elders  being  yet  unsatisfied,  "the  question  came 
before  them  and  after  serious  and  careful  examination  they 
reached  the  very  wise  and  judicious  conclusion  that  .  .  .  they 
did  not  see  any  ground  for  the  Court  to  proceed  to  judg 
ment  in  the  case,  and  therefore  earnestly  desired  the  Court 
might  never  be  more  troubled  with  it.  To  this  all  consented 
except  Mr.  Bellingham,  who  still  maintained  his  former  opin 
ion,  and  would  have  the  magistrates  lay  down  their  negative 
voice,  and  so  the  cause  to  be  heard  again.  This  stiffness  of 
his  and  singularity  of  opinion,  was  very  unpleasing  to  all  the 
company,  but  they  went  on  notwithstanding  . ' .  .  to  recon 
cile  differences  and  take  away  offenses,  which  were  risen 
between  some  of  the  magistrates  by  occasion  of  this  sow 
business,  and  the  treaties  of  Mr.  Saltonstall  against  the 
council,  so  as  Mr.  Bellingham  and  he  stood  divided  from 
the  rest,  which  occasioned  much  opposition  even  in  open 
court."  2 

The  conflict  between  Saltonstall  and  Bellingham  on  the 
one  side  and  the  other  magistrates  is  here  manifested  again. 
1  Winthrop,  ii.  *6$-*72.  z  Ib.,  ii.  *n6. 


316  THOMAS   DUDLEY  [CH.  xxvn 

They  seem,  from  jealousy,  or  from  a  desire  to  win  popular 
favor,  to  be  often  on  the  side  of  the  dear  people  against  the 
magistrates,  or  in  opposition  in  every  contest  where  there  is 
a  conflict  between  them  and  the  rich,  or  persons  higher  in 
social  rank. 

It  seems  that  "  Mr.  Dudley  also  had  let  fall  a  speech  in 
the  Court  to  Mr.  Rogers  of  Ipswich,  which  was  grievous  to 
him  and  other  of  the  elders.  The  thing  was  this,  Mr.  Rogers 
being  earnest  in  the  cause  between  the  town  and  Mr.  Brad- 
street  [who  was  the  son-in-law  of  Dudley],  which  also 
concerned  his  own  interest  [that  is  to  say,  the  interest  of 
Rogers],  Mr.  Dudley  used  this  speech  to  him,  '  Do  you  think 
to  come  with  your  eldership  here  to  carry  matters/  etc.  Mr. 
Dudley  was  somewhat  hard  at  first  to  be  brought  to  see  any 
evil  in  it,  but  at  last  he  was  convinced,  and  did  acknowledge 
it  and  they  were  reconciled."  It  is  certainly  very  refreshing 
to  observe  Dudley  honestly  declaring  his  real  convictions  as 
to  the  impropriety  of  the  elders  mingling  in  the  action  of 
the  Court  with  the  influence  of  their  high  office.  We  feel 
certain  that  he  was  right  in  his  first  position,  and  his  acknow 
ledgment  must  have  been  simply  one  of  expediency  and  to 
secure  harmony  without  the  sacrifice  of  principle.  He  is 
the  only  one  of  the  magistrates  who  seems  to  have  had  the 
courage  to  declare  the  whole  counsel  of  the  gods  to  the 
elders. 

Winthrop  says  further,  "  The  sow  business  had  started 
another  question  about  the  magistrate's  negative  voice  in 
the  General  Court.  The  deputies  generally  were  very  ear 
nest  to  have  it  taken  away."  It  was  believed  by  the  magis 
trates  that  this  would  lead  to  an  unavoidable  change  into  a 
democracy  if  the  negative  were  taken  away,  and  after  writ 
ing  several  treatises  and  much  discussion  it  was  concluded 
to  let  it  remain,  as  it  has  to  this  present  time,  with  some 
modifications  forty  years  after  that  date  of  sixteen  hundred 
and  forty-three. 

There  was,  it  is  evident,  a  strong  feeling  in  the  minds  of 
Winthrop  and  Dudley  and  other  founders  of  Massachusetts 


1643]  DEATH   OF   MRS.   DUDLEY  317 

against  democracy  pure  and  simple;  and  from  this  it  has 
been  claimed  that  they  had  no  conception  of  the  great 
democratic  republic  which  they  were  contributing  towards 
founding.  Winthrop  says  that  "  democracy  is  among  most 
civil  nations  counted  the  meanest  and  worst  of  all  forms  of 
government  .  .  .  and  histories  record  that  it  has  always 
been  of  least  continuance,  and  fullest  of  troubles." 

But  there  is  a  vast  difference  between  a  representative 
republic,  with  its  organized  system,  its  checks  and  counter 
checks  of  one  department  of  government  upon  another, 
even  though  all  the  departments  are  elected  directly  or  indi 
rectly  by  the  votes  of  the  people,  and  a  simple  democracy. 
The  latter,  if  the  citizens  are  not  of  the  first  quality  in 
intelligence  and  virtue,  a  thing  which  has  hardly  yet  been 
attained  by  any  people  in  the  history  of  the  world,  is  a 
government  liable  to  sudden  outbursts  of  anarchy,  without 
any  conservative  centralized  power  to  control,  and  must  be 
a  very  uncertain  and  unsafe  form  of  government ;  indeed,  it 
can  have  no  practical  existence,  and  must  be  unwieldy  except 
in  very  small  populations  and  to  a  very  limited  extent. 
We  therefore  may  well  agree  with  the  dread  of  the  fathers 
of  democracy,  and  can  well  understand  why  they  sought  to 
limit  the  franchise,  and  to  retain  government  in  the  hands 
of  experienced  and  efficient  men  of  the  colony. 

One  thing  is  certain,  that  in  the  sow  business  the  magis 
trates  triumphed  ;  they  not  only  maintained  themselves  and 
the  negative  voice ;  they  also,  as  we  have  seen,  secured  the 
right  to  sit  in  a  separate  chamber  ever  after,  and  thus  won  a 
double  victory. 

A  sad  bereavement  came  this  year  to  Dudley  in  the  loss 
of  his  wife,  Dorothy.  Mather  says  that  she  was  "  a  gentle 
woman  whose  extraction  and  estate  were  considerable."  She 
had,  during  all  these  struggles,  from  the  early  part  of  the 
century  to  the  day  of  her  death,  been  the  comfort  and  loving 
companion  of  Dudley.  She  had  walked  by  his  side  through 
it  all  and  taken  her  full  share  of  the  privations  and  suffer 
ing  which  were  a  part  of  this  great  undertaking.  She  was 


3i8  THOMAS    DUDLEY  [CH.  xxvn 

the  mother  of  five  of  his  children.  The  most  that  we  know 
of  the  merits  of  this  excellent  woman  is  found  in  her  epitaph, 
written  by  her  distinguished  daughter,  Anne  Bradstreet :  — 

AN   EPITAPH 

On  my  dear  and  ever  honored  Mother, 

MRS.  DOROTHY  DUDLEY, 
Who  deceased  Decemb.  27,  1643,  and  of  her  age,  61 ; 

Here  lyes, 

A  worthy  Matron  of  unspotted  life, 
A  loving  Mother  and  obedient  wife, 
A  friendly  Neighbor,  pitiful  to  poor, 
Whom  oft  she  fed,  and  clothed  with  her  store ; 
To  servants  wisely  aweful,  but  yet  kind, 
And  as  they  did,  so  they  reward  did  find: 
A  true  instructor  of  her  Family, 
The  which  she  ordered  with  dexterity. 
The  publick  meetings  ever  did  frequent, 
And  in  her  closet  constant  hours  she  spent ; 
Religious  in  all  her  words  and  ways, 
Preparing  still  for  death,  till  end  of  dayes : 
Of  all  her  Children,  Children,  lived  to  see, 
Then  dying,  left  a  blessed  memory.1 

This  epitaph  reveals  the  sympathy  which  Mrs.  Dudley 
must  have  had  in  the  earnest  religious  life  work  of  her 
husband,  proving  herself  a  most  faithful  and  appreciative 
companion.  We  may  well  feel  from  these  lines  that  her 
government  in  her  household  affairs  was  so  strong  that 
she  also  proved  herself  born  to  rule  as  well  as  he. 

There  is,  moreover,  a  flavor  of  kindness  and  of  tender 
charity  for  the  suffering  and  the  poor,  which  we  most  heartily 
believe  was  not  borne  by  herself  alone,  but  that  it  received 
the  sincere  approval  and  support  of  Governor  Dudley  as 
well,  for  it  has  been  shown  elsewhere  that  he  had  a  heart 
full  of  sympathy  toward  his  less  fortunate  fellow-creatures. 

It  doubtless  would  appear  to  many  persons  that  the  mar 
riage  of  Dudley  to  Mrs.  Catharine  Hackburn,  widow  of 
Samuel  Hackburn,  of  Roxbury,  only  a  little  over  four  months 
1  J.  H.  Ellis's  Anne  Bradstreet,  369. 


1643]  SECOND   MARRIAGE  319 

after  the  death  of  his  first  wife,  was  too  soon,  and  did  not 
show  a  sufficient  respect  to  her  memory,  or  that  tender 
thoughtfulness  of  her  life  work  with  him  which  would  have 
been  more  creditable  to  his  character.  There  are,  however, 
often  circumstances  in  life  which  may  justify  a  course  in 
these  matters  which  otherwise  would  not  be  respectful  or 
proper.  And  since  we  are  not  informed  sufficiently  we  are 
unable  to  enter  on  any  judgment  in  the  premises,  and  can 
only  fall  back  upon  what  we  know  of  Dudley  otherwise,  and 
assume  that  he  had  what  he  thought  to  be  good  reasons  for 
his  peculiar  conduct  in  this  matter.  It  may  also  have  been 
at  that  time  a  custom  not  to  delay  marriage,  according  to 
the  present  ideas.  Life  was  more  simple.  There  may  have 
been  a  peculiar  fascination  about  this  widow,  as  we  believe 
she  married  after  the  demise  of  Governor  Dudley,  with  less 
intervening  time.  Governor  Dudley  had  three  children  by 
this  marriage.  The  most  distinguished  of  these  was  Gov 
ernor  Joseph  Dudley.  Winthrop,  after  the  death  of  Margaret 
Winthrop,  in  1647,  married  his  fourth  wife  about  eight 
months  later. 

We  have  dwelt  upon  the  difficulty  which  grew  up  between 
Cambridge  and  Boston.  It  may  have  been  that  Dudley  and 
Hooker  were  on  the  one  side  opposed  to  Winthrop  and  Cot 
ton  on  the  other.  That  is  to  say,  there  was  a  Cambridge 
faction  arrayed  against  a  Boston  faction  in  politics.  All  this 
had  long  since  disappeared,  and  Dudley  and  Winthrop,  in 
the  great  constructive  work  of  forming  the  government,  were 
united,  laboring  together  against  all  factions  and  all  oppo 
sition  towards  the  onward  progress  of  Massachusetts  and 
her  institutions.  It  is  noticeable  that  nearly  all  writers  in 
commenting  upon  the  events  of  this  period  seem  to  consider 
the  successes  of  Dudley  as  triumphs  of  the  Winthrop  party 
in  politics.  There  is  perhaps  a  natural  tendency,  without 
sufficient  consideration,  to  include  all  the  important  services 
of  Dudley  in  the  great  work  of  Winthrop  without  fully 
recognizing  the  former,  who  was,  to  say  the  least,  a  tower  of 
strength  and  stability  wherever  he  took  part. 


32o  THOMAS   DUDLEY  [CH.  xxvn 

But  in  1644  the  battle-ground  had  been  changed.  It  was 
now  a  rivalry  between  the  people  of  Essex  and  of  Suffolk 
counties,  between  Ipswich  and  Boston.  It  was  the  Essex 
influence,  no  doubt,  which  gave  to  Endicott  the  governor 
ship  this  year,  displacing  Winthrop.  Ipswich  was,  next  to 
Boston,  the  largest  and  most  important  town.  Bradstreet 
resided  there,  who,  although  the  son-in-law  of  Dudley,  seems 
at  this  time  to  have  been  in  political  opposition  to  him,  and 
Nathaniel  Ward,  who  had  prepared  the  draft  of  laws  entitled 
"  Body  of  Liberties,"  the  first  code  of  laws  established  in 
New  England,  adopted,  as  we  have  seen,  in  1641.  He  was 
also  the  author  of  "The  Simple  Cobler  of  Aggawam,"  Aga- 
wam  being  the  Indian  name  of  Ipswich.  Palfrey  says  that 
"  the  change  now  made  [that  is,  of  Endicott  as  governor  and 
Winthrop  as  deputy  governor,  although  they  tried  to  intro 
duce  Bellingham]  was  a  moderate  one,  but  it  indicated  a 
reversal  of  the  policy  towards  the  rival  Frenchmen  [La  Tour 
and  D'Aulnay].  There  was  evidence  of  this,  still  more  sig 
nificant,  when  Bradstreet  and  William  Hawthorn,  the  latter 
a  young  man  rising  into  notice,  were  appointed  to  succeed 
Winthrop  and  Dudley  as  federal  commissioners,  while  Salton- 
stall  was  designated  to  supply  Bradstreet's  place,  in  case  a 
substitute  should  be  needed.  These  were  men  of  Essex 
County,  except  Saltonstall,  and  he  was  the  fast  friend  of 
Bellingham.  Winthrop  was  suspected  of  being  unduly  under 
the  influence  of  the  business  men  of  Boston,  in  the  favor 
which  he  had  shown  to  La  Tour.  Palfrey  says  further, 
"  Two  hundred  years  ago  it  seems  Essex  men  were  thought 
to  be  aspiring  to  rule  the  colony,  as  fifty  years  ago  '  an  Essex 
junto'  was  cried  out  against  for  its  alleged  ambition  to  rule 
the  commonwealth."  l  Thus  the  scheming  of  politicians, 
inspired  with  local  self-interest,  was  manifested  from  the  very 
beginning  of  the  history  of  this  mother  of  commonwealths. 

It  was  in  1643  that  Parliament  passed  an  ordinance  to 
restrain  unlicensed  printing,  which  called  forth  the  Areopa- 

1  Palfrey,  ii.  156,  157;  Winthrop,  ii.  *i;i,  *i;2;  Mass.  Col.  Rec., 
ii.  69. 


1643-44]       TOLERATION   IN   MASSACHUSETTS  321 

gitica  of  John  Milton,  which  William  E.  Channing  says,  and 
the  world  agrees,  was  "  Milton's  most  celebrated  prose  work." 
This  was  "A  Speech  for  the  Liberty  of  Unlicensed  Printing, 
a  noble  work  indeed,  a  precious  manual  of  freedom,  an  arsenal 
of  immortal  weapons  for  the  defense  of  man's  highest  pre 
rogative,  intellectual  liberty."  l 

James  Russell  Lowell  says,  "  that  in  this  time  in  England 
every  crotchet  and  whimsey,  too,  became  the  nucleus  of  a 
sect,  and,  as  if  Old  England  could  not  furnish  enough  other- 
wise-mindedness  of  her  own,  New  England  sent  over  Roger 
Williams  and  Gorton  to  help  in  the  confusion  of  tongues. 
All  these  sects,  since  each  singly  was  in  a  helpless  and  often 
hateful  minority,  were  united  in  the  assertion  of  their  right 
to  freedom  of  opinion  and  to  the  uncurtailed  utterance  of 
whatever  they  fancied  that  opinion  to  be.  Many  of  them,  it 
should  seem,  could  hardly  fail  in  their  menial  vagabondage  to 
stumble  upon  the  principle  of  universal  toleration,  but  none 
discovered  anything  more  novel  than  that  liberty  of  Prophe 
sying  is  good  for  Me  and  very  bad  for  Thee.  It  is  remark 
able  how  beautiful  the  countenance  of  toleration  always  looks 
in  this  partial  view  of  it,  but  it  is  conceivable  that  any  one  of 
these  heterodoxies  once  in  power,  and  therefore  orthodox, 
would  have  buckled  around  all  dissenters  one  strait  waist 
coat  yet  warm  from  the  constraint  of  more  precious  limbs.  .  .  . 
Williams,  as  was  natural  in  one  of  his  amiable  temper,  was 
more  generous  than  the  rest,  but  even  he  lived  long  enough 
to  learn  that  there  were  politico-theological  bores  in  Rhode 
Island  so  sedulous  and  so  irritating  that  they  made  him  doubt 
the  efficacy  of  his  own  nostrum,  just  as  the  activity  of  cer 
tain  domestic  insects  might  make  a  Brahmin  waver  as  to  the 
sacredness  of  life  in  some  of  its  lower  organisms."  2 

Yet  even  Milton  later  became  a  censor  of  the  press,  and 
he  never  would  have  granted  liberty  either  to  Popery  or 
Atheism  to  propagate  itself.  He  says,  in  his  history  of  Brit 
ain,  "  that  liberty  hath  a  sharp  and  double  edge  fit  only  to 

1  William  E.  Channing,  i.  28,  29. 

2  Lowell's  Prose  Works,  Latest  Literary  Essays,  94,  95. 


322  THOMAS   DUDLEY  [CH.  xxvn 

be  handled  by  just  and  virtuous  men;  to  bad  and  dissolute 
it  becomes  a  mischief  unwieldy  in  their  own  hands."  Thus 
the  Puritans  of  Massachusetts  were  in  substantial  accord  in 
spirit  with  the  Puritans  in  England  and  with  their  greatest 
exponent. 


CHAPTER   XXVIII 

THE  civil  war  which  was  raging  in  England  at  this  time 
was,  as  we  have  noticed,  a  subject  of  the  deepest  interest 
and  solicitude  in  Massachusetts.  Boston  became  almost  a 
scene  of  battle  between  the  two  parties  in  May,  1644.  There 
was  in  port  at  this  time  a  Bristol  ship  laden  with  fish  on  her 
way  to  Bilboa ;  there  was  also  a  Parliament  man-of-war  of 
twenty -four  guns  in  the  harbor,  commanded  by  Captain 
Thomas  Stagg.  Captain  Stagg  demanded  the  surrender  of 
the  Bristol  ship  within  half  an  hour,  and  prepared  to  fire 
upon  her  if  she  refused.  There  was  a  great  assemblage  of 
people  upon  Windmill  Hill  to  witness  the  contest,  but  the 
Bristol  ship  surrendered  without  battle.  Deputy  Governor 
John  Winthrop  wrote  to  Captain  Stagg  asking  his  authority 
for  his  conduct.  Captain  Stagg  produced  his  commission 
from  the  Earl  of  Warwick,  which  was  sent  to  Governor 
Endicott,  at  Salem.  This  event  created  a  great  disturbance 
in  the  colony,  because  there  were  Bristol  merchants  here 
who  felt  it  to  be  an  outrage.  The  elders  in  their  pulpits 
regarded  it  as  an  invasion  of  the  liberties  of  the  people,  and 
even  the  General  Court  was  forced  to  consider  the  advan 
tages  and  the  perils  to  which  they  were  exposed  by  the 
adherence  either  to  the  Parliament  or  to  the  Royalists.  This 
was  illustrated  at  a  meeting  of  some  of  the  magistrates  and 
elders,  at  which  they  gave  some  of  their  reasons  and  convic 
tions  why  they  ought  rather  to  sustain  the  action  of  Captain 
Stagg  :- 

"  i.  Because  this  could  be  no  precedent  to  bar  us  from 
opposing  any  commission  or  other  foreign  power  that  might 
indeed  tend  to  our  hurt  and  violate  our  liberty ;  for  the  Par 
liament  had  taught  us  that  salus  populi  is  supreme  lex. 


324  THOMAS   DUDLEY  [CH.  xxvm 

"  2.  The  King  of  England  was  enraged  against  us,  and  all 
that  party,  and  all  the  Popish  states  in  Europe ;  and  if  we 
should  now,  by  opposing  the  Parliament,  cause  them  to  for 
sake  us,  we  could  have  no  protection  or  countenance  from 
any,  but  should  lie  open  as  a  prey  to  all  men.  .  .  .  Upon 
these  and  other  considerations,  it  was  not  thought  fit  to 
oppose  the  Parliament's  commission,  but  to  suffer  the  cap 
tain  to  enjoy  his  prize."  1 

We  can  well  understand  what  a  tremendous  responsibility 
fell  upon  the  most  prominent  men  in  Massachusetts  at  this 
time,  when  to  make  a  mistake,  either  in  one  direction  or  in 
the  other,  might,  as  had  so  often  happened  in  other  nations, 
expose  the  colony  to  destruction  from  its  enemies  abroad. 
Nobody  could  tell  at  that  moment  which  party  would  finally 
prevail  in  England,  and  thus  they  were  exposed  constantly 
to  the  uncertain  fortunes  of  a  foreign  war,  the  issues  of 
which  otherwise  were  quite  unimportant  to  them.  We  can 
not  overestimate  the  sound  judgment  and  enlightened  wis 
dom  which  entered  into  their  method  and  conduct  in  this 
crisis.  We  know  very  well  that  Winthrop,  Dudley,  and 
Endicott  were  here  foremost,  the  great  leaders  so  long  as 
they  remained  in  the  colony.  When  they  were  gone  they 
were  succeeded  by  others  whom  they  had  educated  and  pre 
pared  to  fill  their  places. 

Thomas  Morton  returned  to  this  country  in  1643,  having 
done  what  he  could  while  in  England  to  disturb  the  relations 
between  Massachusetts  and  the  home  government,  and  hav 
ing  there  published  a  hostile  pamphlet,  entitled  "  The  New 
English  Canaan,"  and  written  a  letter  which  was  scurrilous 
and  bad  in  the  extreme.  He  was  brought  before  the  Court, 
sent  to  prison  for  a  year,  then  fined  a  hundred  pounds,  and 
set  at  liberty.  He  was  shown  mercy,  because  he  was  old 
and  crazy.  He  died  within  two  years.  There  are  persons 
who  have  expressed  great  sympathy  for  Morton,  but  he  does 
not  seem  to  have  merited  by  his  character  or  his  conduct 
much  more  consideration  than  he  received.  He  early  for- 
1  Winthrop,  ii.  *i8o-*i83. 


1644]         DUDLEY   SERGEANT  MAJOR   GENERAL  325 

felted  all  right  to  the  respect  and  confidence  of  the  govern 
ment  of  Massachusetts,  and  as  her  bitter  enemy  she  was 
justified  in  holding  him  strictly  responsible  for  his  hostile 
efforts  against  her,  for  it  was  to  her  a  matter  of  self-preser 
vation,  and  her  first  duty  to  the  extent  of  his  importance 
and  his  influence. 

A  new  office  was  created  in  1644 :  Dudley  was  chosen 
sergeant  major  general,  and  was  given  the  sole  command  of 
the  militia,  as  fully  empowered  as  the  governor  was  at  the 
head  of  the  civil  authority.  Dudley  was  especially  well 
qualified  for  this  office,  both  by  his  early  military  career  and 
by  his  long  experience  in  the  government.  This  appoint 
ment  and  organization  of  the  militia  is  another  evidence  that 
the  colony  felt  deeply  the  need,  because  of  the  civil  war  at 
home  and  savage  Indians  all  around,  to  be  constantly  in 
readiness  to  defend  and  protect  itself. 

Great  power  was  placed  in  the  hands  of  the  commanding 
general.  He  always  had  in  the  councils  of  war  the  casting 
vote,  also  the  power  to  impress  all  materials  and  instruments 
fit  for  war.  His  commission  says  :  "  But  for  the  ordering 
and  managing  of  any  battle  in  time  of  service,  it  is  wholly 
left  to  yourself.  Also  yourself,  together  with  the  council  of 
war,  shall  have  power  to  make  such  wholesome  laws,  agree 
able  to  the  word  of  God,  as  you  shall  conceive  to  be  neces 
sary  for  the  well  ordering  of  your  army."  Indeed,  he  seems 
to  have  had  no  controlling  power  above  him  except  the 
General  Court,  and  was  only  limited  in  his  actions  as  pro 
vided  in  his  commission  by  the  council  of  war.1 

"It  is  desired  that  the  iQth  of  the  loth  month  shall  be 
kept  a  day  of  public  humiliation  in  regard  of  our  native 
country,  the  prevailing  of  erroneous  and  corrupt  opinions, 
the  sore  wars,  and  extreme  wants  of  many  there,  with  the 
weighty  occasions  in  hand  both  there  and  here."  2 

This  record  indicates  to  us  the  troubles  which  afflicted 
the  colony  and  gave  great  anxiety  to  the  administration. 

1  Mass.  Col.  Rec.,  ii.  77,  78. 

2  Ib.,  ii.  84. 


326  THOMAS   DUDLEY  [CH.  xxvm 

It  also  shows,  whatever  we  may  think  of  it,  the  childlike 
dependence  which  they  maintained  toward  an  overruling 
Providence  in  all  matters,  both  small  and  great.  Their 
intense  fear  and  dread  of  Anabaptists  and  of  heresy  leads 
them  to  bring  the  matter  before  the  General  Court,  Novem 
ber  13,  1644,  and  to  place  on  record  an  expression  of  their 
conviction  that  these  false  religions,  by  their  infection,  are 
a  danger  to  the  churches  and  to  the  whole  commonwealth.1 

Richard  Andrews  and  two  ladies  of  London,  England,  had 
made  generous  donations  to  the  colony,  and  accordingly  a 
committee  was  appointed  to  draw,  transcribe,  and  send  a 
letter  from  the  Court  returning  the  thanks  of  the  Court 
and  colony  to  these  benefactors.  Winthrop,  Dudley,  and 
Hibbins  were  the  members  of  this  committee.  At  the  same 
Court,  the  same  committee  were  appointed  to  answer  for 
the  colony  in  all  such  occasions  as  may  be  presented  to  the 
Parliament  concerning  us  or  our  affairs.  2.  To  receive  all 
letters  and  other  dispatches  of  public  nature.  3.  To  advise 
the  Court  of  all  such  events  as  may  happen  touching  the 
colony.  4.  To  receive  all  moneys  for  other  things  due  to 
the  colony  from  any  person  in  England,  by  gift  or  other 
wise,  and  to  dispose  of  them  according  to  direction  under 
our  public  seal.  The  appointment  of  this  important  com 
mittee  with  such  remarkable  powers  is  conclusive  evidence 
of  the  estimate  which  the  Court  then  held  on  the  character 
and  gifts  of  its  members.  It  is  notable,  first,  that  they  are 
chosen  to  prepare  with  fitting  words  a  graceful  acknow 
ledgment  of  foreign  gifts,  in  the  name  and  behalf  of  the 
Court,  and  that  the  members  selected  were  the  best  qualified 
for  this  service ;  and,  second,  that  they  were  intrusted  by 
their  other  appointment  with  the  powers  of  a  cabinet  and 
the  unbounded  confidence  of  the  General  Court. 

The  commissioners  of  the  United  Colonies  gave  advice 
that  care  be  taken  for  the  encouragement  and  maintenance 
of  poor  scholars  in  the  college  at  Cambridge,  and  it  is  com 
mended  by  the  General  Court  that  the  deputies  of  the  sev- 
1  Mass.  Col.  Rec.,  ii.  85. 


1644]  ELECTION    SERMONS  327 

eral  towns  shall  undertake  to  do  what  has  been  done  in 
some  of  the  other  colonies,  that  every  family  shall  allow  one 
peck  of  corn,  or  twelve  pence  in  money  for  other  commodity, 
to  be  sent  to  the  treasurer  for  the  college  at  Cambridge.1 

A  proposition  was  made,  on  account  of  the  expense  of 
"  the  over  number  of  deputies,  ...  to  have  only  five  or  six 
out  of  each  shire,  .  .  .  and  those  to  be  prime  men  of  the 
country."  It  was  agreed  that  the  magistrates  should  relin 
quish  the  negative  voice,  if  the  deputies  were  reduced  to  the 
same  number  as  the  magistrates,  but  the  towns  refused  it, 
and  the  change  was  not  made ;  and  Palfrey  says,  "  It  was 
not  till  more  than  two  hundred  years  after  this  time  that  the 
municipal  corporations,  as  such,  ceased  to  be  constituents  of 
the  second  house  of  legislature." 

It  has  been  the  custom  from  the  very  first,  until  1884,  to 
have  an  election  sermon,  so  called,  preached  before  the  legis 
lature  by  some  eminent  minister,  at  or  near  the  time  of  the 
annual  inauguration  of  the  new  legislature.  The  purpose  of 
this,  no  doubt,  was  to  give  them  helpful  Christian  advice 
and  direction  at  their  entrance  upon  the  important  work  of 
legislation  for  the  year  ensuing. 

It  happened  in  the  year  1641,  when  Bellingham  was  made 
governor,  on  account  of  the  unpopularity,  in  part,  of  Win- 
throp,  because  of  the  favor  which  he  had  shown  La  Tour, 
that  the  deputies  had  chosen  for  this  service  Nathaniel 
Ward,  without  consulting  the  magistrates,  who,  on  account 
of  ill  feeling  between  the  two  branches  of  the  legislature, 
waived  their  own  supposed  right  of  appointment  to  this 
office.  In  1644  the  deputies  ordered  the  appointment  of 
Mr.  Norton,  while  the  governor  and  magistrates  selected 
Mr.  Norris.  The  magistrates  again  surrendered  to  the  depu 
ties,  and  Norton  performed  the  service.  Norris  was  the 
minister  of  Governor  Endicott,  and  this  was  used  politically 
against  him  at  the  election  in  1645.  The  Essex  junto, 
no  doubt,  was  active  at  this  election,  but  Bellingham  was 
defeated,  and  they  in  turn  succeeded  in  preventing  the  elec- 
1  Mass.  Col.  Rec.,  ii.  86 ;  Winthrop,  ii.  *2I4. 


328  THOMAS   DUDLEY  [CH.  xxvm 

tion  of  Winthrop  or  Endicott.  Dudley  was,  however,  elected 
governor,  and  Winthrop  deputy  governor,  which  was  in  effect 
the  triumph  of  the  Winthrop-Dudley  party,  and  a  return  to 
the  ancient  trusted  leaders. 

It  was  ordered  by  the  Court  on  the  fourteenth  day  of  May, 
1645,  when  Dudley  was  for  the  third  time  elected  governor 
of  the  colony,  that  "all  youth  within  this  jurisdiction,  from 
ten  years  old  to  the  age  of  sixteen  years,  shall  be  instructed 
by  some  one  of  the  officers  of  the  band,  or  some  other  expe 
rienced  soldier,  ...  in  the  exercise  of  arms,  as  small  guns, 
half  pikes,  bows  and  arrows."  This  training  was  to  secure 
their  efficiency,  even  if  they  were  destitute  of  powder.1 

The  Rev.  John  Eliot,  the  apostle  to  the  Indians,  relates  in 
his  diary  that  the  following  anagram  was  sent  to  Dudley  two 
days  after  this  election.  Eliot  dwelt  upon  the  opposite  side 
of  the  street  from  Dudley,  in  Roxbury.  As  we  have  ob 
served,  they  were  excellent  friends.  Charles  M.  Ellis,  the 
historian  of  that  town,  evidently  inclines  to  the  opinion  that 
Eliot  was  its  author.  He  says,  "  Eliot  was  guilty  of  dog 
gerel.  This  is  in  his  vein.  And  it  is  hard  to  see  why  he 
should  have  questioned  the  best  reading  of  a  line,  or  noticed 
such  a  thing  at  all,  or  written  it  out  at  length,  unless  it  was 
his  own."  2 

Dudley  was  then  sixty-nine  years  of  age.  It  has  been 
inferred  by  certain  persons  whose  esteem  for  Dudley  is 
moderate,  that  these  lines  were  sent  to  him,  in  his  moment 
of  success,  by  some  insolent  enemy,  to  temper  his  happiness 
and  impede  his  joyousness. 

It  is  possible,  and  indeed  far  more  probable,  that  his 
friend  Eliot,  whose  uppermost  thought  was  the  theme  "of 
these  lines,  may  have  feared  that  the  governor  might  not  at 
this  moment  sufficiently  dwell  upon  the  nothingness  of  mortal 
affairs,  and  a  little  reminder,  couched  in  words  ingeniously 
composed  from  his  own  name,  with  a  remote  flavor  of  poetry, 
might  arrest  his  attention.  They  probably  had  an  impor- 

1  Mass.  Col.  Rec.,  ii.  99. 

2  Ellis's  Hist,  of  Roxbury,  104. 


i645l  IMPORTANCE   OF  EDUCATION  329 

tance  in  his  estimation  which  it  would  be  impossible  for  us 
to  accord  to  them. 

THOMAS   DUDLEY. 

Ah,  Old,  must  dye. 

A  death's  head  on  you,  you  would  not  weare ; 

A  dying  head,  you  on  your  shoulders  beare. 

You  need  not  one  to  mind  you,  you  must  dye. 

You  in  your  name  may  spell  mortalitye, 

Young  men  may  dye,  but  old  men  they  dye  must. 

Lord  it  can't  be  long  )  , 

>T  will  not  be  long     |  before  ?ou  turne  to  dust 

Before  you  turne  to  dust !     Ah,  Must,  Old  !  dye ! 

What  shall  younge  doe,  when  old  in  dust  doe  lye, 

When  old  in  dust  lye  ;  what  shall  New  England  doe  ? 

When  old  in  dust  lye,  it 's  best  dye  too.1 

The  paramount  importance  of  education,  both  military  and 
civil,  had  taken  possession  of  the  minds  of  these  founders. 
Schools  which  have  given,  during  the  last  two  hundred  and 
fifty  years,  immense  force  of  culture  to  the  mass  of  Ameri 
can  citizenship,  and  have  contributed  as  much  as  anything  to 
the  unparalleled  intellectual  and  moral  influence  of  Massa 
chusetts  in  the  republic,  were  founded  now  ;  while  the  noble 
public  school  system  was  created  two  years  later.2 

Winthrop  informs  us  that  "  divers  free  schools  were  cre 
ated  as  at  Roxbury  (for  the  maintenance  whereof  every 
inhabitant  bound  some  house  or  land  for  a  yearly  allowance 
forever),  and  at  Boston  (where  they  made  an  order  to  allow 
forever  fifty  pounds  to  the  master  and  an  house,  and  thirty 
pounds  to  an  usher,  who  should  also  teach  to  read  and 
write  and  cipher),  and  Indian  children  were  to  be  taught 
freely,  and  the  charge  to  be  by  yearly  contribution,  either  by 

1  Hist,  of  Roxbury,  103,  104;  Eliot's  Records,  Hist.  Genealog.  Reg., 
Jan.  1879. 

2  The  historian  of  Dorchester,  Mass.,  informs  us  that  he  believes 
that  the    "  first  public   provision  for  a  free  school  in  the  world  by  a 
direct  tax  or  assessment  on  the  inhabitants  of  a  town  "  was  made  in 
Dorchester  in  1639.     For  aught  that  we  know,  this  may  have  been  the 
pioneer  movement  in  the  most  important  concernment  in  the  colonies 
next  to  religion. 


330  THOMAS   DUDLEY  [CH.  xxvm 

voluntary  allowance,  or  by  rate  of  such  as  refused,  etc.,  and 
this  order  was  confirmed  by  the  General  Court  [blank]. 
Other  towns  did  the  like,  providing  maintenance  by  several 
means."  1 

Savage  says,  justly  no  doubt,  in  his  note  to  this  passage, 
that  "  in  her  admirable  system  of  free  schools,  or  he  greatly 
mistakes,  Massachusetts  is  superior  to  all  the  rest  of  the 
world,  unless  those  states,  neighboring  or  remote,  who  have 
borrowed  from  her  may  divide  the  honor." 

We  have  elsewhere  mentioned  that  the  free  school  of 
Roxbury  was  established  upon  an  agreement  of  citizens, 
at  the  head  of  which  contract  the  name  of  Thomas  Dudley 
appears.  C.  M.  Ellis  says  that  there  "  is  reason  to  suppose 
he  drew  the  agreement  for  the  free  school."  2  And  the  same 
writer  says  also,  "Governor  Dudley  is  supposed  to  have  given 
part  of  the  lot  where  the  old  schoolhouse  that  was  sold, 
stood,  opposite  to  Guild  Hall.  Both  he  and  his  descendants 
made  very  large  donations  to  the  school."  3 

This  school  still  holds  its  rank  among  the  very  best  schools 
in  America. 

If  we  except  the  statute  in  the  Body  of  Liberties,  the  first 
protest  of  Massachusetts  against  African  slavery  was  issued 
in  October,  1645,  during  the  administration  of  Governor 
Dudley.  We  have  no  evidence  that  this  philanthropic  move 
ment,  in  which  Massachusetts  was  destined  at  a  later  period 
to  take  such  a  leading  part,  originated  with  Dudley,  but  the 
noble  effort  contributed  to  render  his  reign  illustrious. 

The  British  policy  at  this  period,  and  for  more  than  a  hun 
dred  years  thereafter,  was  to  establish  the  slave  trade  in  her 
American  colonies,  and  to  secure  to  herself  the  spoils  and 
the  profits  of  this  nefarious  commerce.  Massachusetts  was 
powerless  to  resist  her  directly,  but  with  her  invincible  love 
of  liberty  she  wielded  the  reserved  power  that  she  retained 
to  give  freedom  to  the  captive. 

1  Winthrop,  ii.  *2I5. 

2  Hist.  Roxbury,  37,  39,  101. 
•  Ib.,  50. 


1644-45]  SLAVERY   IN   MASSACHUSETTS  331 

The  Court  directed  Williams,1  of  Portsmouth,  N.  H., 
"  that  he  forthwith  send  the  negro  which  he  had  of  Captain 
Smyth  hither,  that  he  may  be  sent  home  to  [Guinea],  which 
the  Court  doth  resolve  to  send  back  without  delay." 2 

The  record  of  the  same  Court  the  very  next  year  on  the 
fourth  day  of  November,  in  another  case,  is  yet  more  effec 
tive  and  certain. 

"  The  General  Court,  conceiving  themselves  bound  by  the 
first  opportunity  to  bear  witness  against  the  heinous  and 
crying  sin  of  man-stealing,  as  also  to  prescribe  such  timely 
redress  for  what  is  past,  and  such  a  law  for  the  future  as  may 
sufficiently  deter  all  others  belonging  to  us  to  have  to  do  in 
such  vile  and  most  odious  courses,  justly  abhorred  of  all  good 
and  just  men,  do  order,  that  the  negro  interpreter,  with  oth 
ers  unlawfully  taken,  be,  by  the  first  opportunity  (at  the 
charge  of  the  country  for  the  present)  sent  to  his  native 
country  of  Guinea,  and  a  letter  with  him  of  the  indignation 
of  the  Court  thereabouts ;  and  in  justice  hereof  desiring  our 
honored  governor  would  please  to  put  this  order  in  execu 
tion."  3 


1  "  Boston,  at  the  General  Court,  the  I4th  of  the  8th  Mo.  1645. 

"  MR.  WILLIAMS  :  The  Court  understanding  that  the  negroes  which 
Capt.  Smyth  brought  were  fraudulently  and  injuriously  taken  and 
brought  from  Guinea,  by  Capt.  Smyth's  confession ;  and  the  rest  of  the 
company  hath  resolved  to  send  them  back,  and  so  doth  desire  that  the 
negro  which  you  had  of  Capt.  Smyth  be  forthwith  sent  hither,  that  he 
may  be  sent  home  without  delay ;  and  if  you  have  anything  to  allege 
why  you  should  not  return  him,  to  be  disposed  of  by  the  Court,  it  will 
be  expected  you  should  forthwith  make  it  appear,  either  by  yourself  or 
your  agent,  but  not  make  any  excuse  or  delay  in  sending  of  him. 

GOV.  WlNTHROP. 

"  Consented  to  by  the  deputies  and  the  governor,  because  of  the  pre 
sent  opportunity  to  send  him  directly  home  by  Major  Gibbon's  vessel. 

EDWARD  RAWSON.'' 

Boston,  Jan.  28,  1898.  Compared  with  the  original  and  found  cor 
rectly  copied,  WILLIAM  M.  OLIN,  Sec'y.  (Mass.  Archives,  State 
House,  Boston,  Ix.  291.) 

'2  Mass.  Col.  Rec.,  ii.  136. 

8  Winthrop,  ii.  *244,  *245,  and  App.  M. 


332  THOMAS   DUDLEY  [CH.  xxvm 

The  fathers  were  sublimely  consistent  in  cherishing  civil 
liberty.  Where  in  human  history  are  there  earlier  or  more 
decided  utterances  against  slavery?  The  nations  of  the 
earth  were  then  indifferent  to  the  evils  or  even  the  existence 
of  slavery. 

Sir  John  Hawkins,  in  1562,  attained  to  the  infamy  of  taint 
ing  British  commerce  with  the  execrable  and  barbaric  traffic 
in  men,  and  Queen  Elizabeth  to  the  reproach  of  having 
knighted  him  for  this  despicable  service.1 

Lord  Mansfield,  in  the  case  of  James  Somerset,  declared, 
though  not  the  first  time  in  the  history  of  English  jurispru 
dence,  that  "  the  air  of  England  has  long  been  too  pure  for 
a  slave,  and  every  man  is  free  who  breathes  it.  Every  man 
who  comes  into  England  is  entitled  to  the  protection  of  Eng 
lish  law,  whatever  oppression  he  may  heretofore  have  suf 
fered,  and  whatever  may  be  the  color  of  his  skin.  '  Quam- 
vis  ille  niger  quamvis  tu  candidus  esses.'  Let  the  negro  be 
discharged."  This  decision  was  on  the  22d  of  June,  1772.2 

"  Slaves  cannot  breathe  in  England ;  if  their  lungs 
Receive  our  air,  that  moment  they  are  free ! 
They  touch  our  country,  and  their  shackles  fall." 

Massachusetts,  in  1641,  guaranteed  in  her  Body  of  Liber 
ties  that  "  there  shall  never  be  any  bond  slavery,  villenage 
or  captivity  amongst  us  unless  it  be  lawful  captives  taken  in 
just  wars,  and  such  strangers  as  willingly  sell  themselves  or 
are  sold  to  us."3 

Every  child  born  in  Massachusetts  from  that  day  has  with 
its  first  breath  drawn  in  the  pure  air  of  freedom,  regardless 
of  its  parentage  or  the  color  of  its  skin.4 

John  G.  Whittier  has  well  said,  "  It  was  not  the  rigor  of  her 
northern  winter,  nor  the  unfriendly  soil  of  Massachusetts, 
which  discouraged  the  introduction  of  slavery  during  the 
first  half  century  of  her  existence  as  a  colony.  It  was  the 

1  Mass,  and  its  Early  Hist.,  Lowell  Inst.  Lect,  198. 

2  Lord  Campbell's  Lives  of  the  Chief  Justices,  iii.  317. 

3  Body  of  Liberties,  10,  §  9;  Whitmore's  Col.  Laws,  53. 

4  Works  of  Charles  Sumner,  iii.  384;  v.  281. 


1645]     DOMESTIC   SERVICE   IN  MASSACHUSETTS        333 

recognition  of  the  brotherhood  of  man  in  sin,  suffering,  and 
redemption ;  the  awful  responsibilities  and  eternal  destinies 
of  humanity;  her  hatred  of  wrong  and  tyranny,  and  her 
stern  sense  of  justice,  which  led  her  to  impose  upon  the 
African  slave  trade  the  terrible  penalty  of  the  Mosaic 
code."  1 

The  question  of  domestic  service  vexed  these  people  as  it 
does  ourselves  at  the  present  time,  for  the  spirit  of  demo 
cratic  equality  at  once  seized  all  the  English  servants  whom 
they  imported,  and  made  them  immediately  aspire  to  become 
prosperous  citizens,  rather  than  humble  servants.  Therefore 
it  is  highly  creditable  to  the  virtue  and  justice  of  the  Court, 
that  from  principle  they  resisted  all  selfish  and  mercenary 
considerations. 

The  temptations  in  this  respect  offered  to  individuals,  as 
is  evident  in  the  literature  of  the  period,  were  very  great, 
and  furnish  strong  side  lights  revealing  a  profound  sense  of 
justice  and  a  steadfast  integrity  in  the  leaders  of  society  and 
the  rulers  of  the  colony.  We  have,  for  example,  a  letter  of 
Emanuel  Downing,  brother-in-law  of  Winthrop,  illustrating 
the  view  already  presented,  furnishing  to  us  a  quality  of  him, 
however,  which  is  far  less  humane  and  enlightened  than  the 
public  sentiment  of  the  community  where  he  dwelt.  He 
wrote  to  Winthrop  this  very  year  1645  as  follows  :  — 

"  A  war  with  the  Narragansetts  is  very  considerable  to 
this  plantation,  for  I  doubt  whether  it  be  not  sin  in  us,  hav 
ing  power  in  our  hands,  to  suffer  them  to  maintain  the  wor 
ship  of  the  devil  which  their  powwows  often  do  ;  truly,  if 
upon  a  just  war  the  Lord  should  deliver  them  into  our  hands, 
we  might  easily  have  men,  women,  and  children  enough  to 
exchange  for  Moors,  which  will  be  more  gainful  pillage  for 
us  than  we  conceive,  for  I  do  not  see  how  we  can  thrive 
until  we  get  into  a  stock  of  slaves  sufficient  to  do  all  our 
business,  for  our  children's  children  will  hardly  see  this  great 
continent  filled  with  people,  so  that  our  servants  will  still 

1  Wilson's  Hist,  of  the  Rise  and  Fall  of  the  Slave  Power  in  America, 
I  7. 


334  THOMAS   DUDLEY  [CH.  xxvm 

desire  freedom  to  plant  for  themselves,  and  not  stay  but  for 
very  great  wages.  And  I  suppose  you  know  very  well  how 
we  shall  maintain  twenty  Moors  cheaper  than  one  English 
servant."  1  Downing's  exceeding  need  of  Narragansett  In 
dians  as  merchandise  is  a  refreshing  argument,  conclusive 
indeed  that  they  ought  to  be  preserved  from  devil  worship. 

Pesecus,  the  brother  of  Miantonomoh,  no  doubt  influenced 
by  Gorton,  continued  with  his  allies  to  meditate  war  upon 
Uncas  for  a  long  time,  but  he  was  restrained  from  that  pur 
pose  by  the  United  Colonies.2 

Hutchinson  says  that  Uncas,  being  dismissed  in  1638, 
"with  a  present,  went  home  joyful,  carrying  a  letter  of  pro 
tection  for  himself  and  men  through  the  English  plantations, 
and  never  was  engaged  in  hostilities  against  any  of  the  col 
onies,  although  he  survived  Philip's  war,  and  died  a  very  old 
man  after  the  year  1680."  3 

This  was  the  conclusion  of  the  long,  cruel  war.  A  treaty 
was  signed  August  30,  1645,  which  was  satisfactory  to  the 
commissioners  of  the  United  Colonies.  The  colonial  army 
was  disbanded  September  4,  and  that  day,  which  had  been 
set  apart  as  a  fast  day,  was  triumphantly  and  joyfully  trans 
formed  into  a  thanksgiving  day  and  a  peace  jubilee. 

There  is  no  known  copy  extant  of  Governor  Thomas  Dud 
ley's  thanksgiving  proclamation,  of  even  date  herewith,  nor 
have  we  any  assurance  that  he  ever  made  one.  There  was 
indeed  subsequent  trouble  between  the  English  and  Narra- 
gansetts  respecting  the  performance  of  the  provisions  of  this 
treaty  until  1650,  but  there  was  no  war. 

The  magistrates  and  deputies  renewed  their  struggle  re 
spectively  for  power  this  year.  The  discontent  proceeded,  as 
usual,  from  the  deputies,  however.  There  was  at  the  same 
time  a  strong  feeling  against  the  government,  on  the  part  of 
those  inhabitants  who  had  not  been  admitted  into  church 
membership  nor  received  the  privileges  of  freemen. 

1  Lowell's  Among  My  Books,  i.  262 ;  Winthrop  Papers,  Mass.  Hist. 
Coll.,  4th  series,  vi.  65. 

2  Winthrop,  ii.  *i4i,  #154,  #165,  *333.         8  Hutchinson,  i.  142,  note. 


1645]        THE   MAGISTRATES   AND   THE   PEOPLE  335 

The  newly  acquired  powers  in  their  possession  only  excited 
these  democratic  representatives  to  extend  the  franchises 
already  acquired  by  them.  Enfranchised  people  are  in  gen 
eral  unhappy  and  turbulent  until  they  are  fully  adjusted  to 
their  new  condition,  and  discover  the  extreme  boundary  of 
their  privileges.  Macaulay  has  said,  "  In  no  form  of  govern 
ment  is  there  an  absolute  identity  of  interest  between  the 
different  branches  of  any  government." 

The  ministers  were  invited  to  mediate  in  this  dispute,  and 
through  their  pacific  influence  a  temporary  adjustment  was 
secured,  lasting  into  the  next  year.  The  subject-matter 
was  not  the  identity  of  that  ever-recurring  and  notable  swine ; 
the  real  issue  and  gravamen  was  still,  however,  the  relative 
power  of  the  two  houses  of  the  General  Court,  with  the 
thought  respecting  the  negative  voice  in  the  magistrates. 
Dudley  and  Bellingham,  who  were  on  opposite  sides  of  the 
question  of  the  identity  of  the  sow,  were  hostile  now,  as 
usual,  although  they  had  once  joined  hand  in  hand  as  peace 
makers,  persuading  the  party  who  had  justice  on  his  side  to 
yield  his  rights  in  the  interest  of  harmony.1 

Dudley  was  consistent  in  that  earlier  peaceful  action  with 
his  usual  conduct  in  his  own  private  controversies,  where  no 
moral  question  was  involved,  but  he  could  neither  be  seduced 
by  bribery,  nor  be  terrified  by  power,  even  of  the  British 
government,  to  depart  one  scintilla  from  his  conviction  of 
duty.  Justice  was  to  him  one  of  the  most  sacred  objects  to 
be  sought  by  intelligent  Christian  people. 

The  magistrates  and  deputies  became  deeply  involved  in 
another  dispute  of  similar  nature,  in  which  the  people  mani 
fested  a  fear,  as  they  had  so  often  done  before,  that  the 
magistrates  exercised  too  much  power,  and  that  their  liber 
ties  were  in  danger;  while  the  magistrates  were  on  their 
part  as  anxious,  fearing  that  "  authority  was  overmuch 
slighted,  which  if  not  timely  remedied,  would  endanger  the 
commonwealth  and  bring  it  to  a  mere  democracy." 

This  difficulty  started  in  the  town  of  Hingham,  and  in- 
1  Hutchinson,  i.  144. 


336  THOMAS   DUDLEY  [CH.  xxvm 

creased  in  bitterness  until  it  resulted  in  making  direct 
charges  against  Winthrop,  the  deputy  governor.  The  Court 
assembled  in  the  meeting-house  at  an  appointed  day  to  hear 
the  complaint  of  certain  petitioners  and  deputies  against 
him. 

The  Standing  Council  for  Life,  composed  of  Winthrop, 
Dudley,  and  Endicott,  possessed  still  the  right  of  confirming 
the  choice  of  inferior  military  officers.  The  council  wished 
a  vacancy  in  a  company  filled  by  the  lieutenant.  Winthrop 
became  as  usual  the  object  of  special  vengeance  on  the  part 
of  Bellingham  and  Saltonstall  of  the  magistrates,  as  well  as 
of  the  majority  of  the  deputies,  and  at  once  all  the  jealousies 
which  the  exercise  of  authority  had  created  in  the  past 
between  the  two  houses  were  fanned  into  a  flame.  Winthrop 
defended  himself  with  great  success,  and  finally  made  what 
he  is  pleased  to  call  "a  little  speech"  upon  the  subject  of 
government  in  general,  in  which  he  set  forth  the  liberty 
proper  to  the  individual  citizen,  and  the  powers  and  duty  of 
the  government,  in  a  very  convincing  manner.  This  speech 
has  been  referred  to  as  a  masterly  production,  involving  a 
question  of  great  general  importance. 

We  cannot  overlook  the  fact  that  Dudley,  in  his  long  ser 
vice  in  the  different  departments  of  government,  was  never 
subjected  to  a  similar  humiliation,  although  he  was  a  mem 
ber  of  this  council  for  life.  This  was  certainly  not  because 
he  was  less  firm  or  less  outspoken.  Did  he  possess  more 
tact  ?  Was  he  really  more  wise  and  "level-headed,"  in  deal 
ing  with  his  fellow-citizens  ? l 

Hutchinson  says,  "  A  great  disturbance  was  caused  in  the 
colony,  this  year,  both  as  to  civil  and  ecclesiastical  govern 
ment,  from  the  people  in  general."  2  It  seems  that  since  the 
action  of  the  magistrates  was  sustained,  and  the  deputy  gov 
ernor  vindicated  in  the  Hingham  matter  the  previous  year, 
certain  discontented  persons,  the  most  prominent  of  whom 

1  Winthrop,  ii.  *22i-*236;  Grahame's  United  States,  i.  272,  273; 
Mass.  Col.  Rec.,  ii.  114;  English  in  America,  i.  353,  354. 

2  Hutchinson,  i.  145. 


i64S]  THE   EPISCOPALIANS'  PETITION  337 

were  disfranchised  because  they  were  Episcopalians,  or  for 
other  reasons  deemed  sufficient,  now  made  a  direct  and  in 
solent  attack  upon  the  existing  government,  which  was  begun 
here,  but  was  intended  really  to  accomplish  its  work  in  Eng 
land,  either  by  breaking  down  the  authority  of  the  magis 
trates  and  the  doings  of  the  government,  or,  which  was  the 
same  thing,  by  destroying  it  and  placing  in  its  stead  a  form 
of  government  direct  from  England,  which  was  accomplished 
in  1684  by  the  destruction  of  the  "first  charter,  subverting 
the  independent  colonial  government  and  its  purposes. 

This  work  was  begun  really  in  Plymouth  in  the  October 
term  of  1645,  but  first  appeared  in  the  General  Court  of 
Massachusetts  by  what  was  styled  a  "Remonstrance  and 
Humble  Petition,"  etc.,  a  copy  of  which  may  now  be  found 
in  "  New  England's  Jonas  cast  up  at  London,"  1647,  sup 
posed  to  have  been  written  by  William  Vassal,  though  bear 
ing  the  name  of  Major  John  Child.  W.  T.  R.  Marvin,  in 
his  introduction  to  an  edition  of  this  book,  called  attention 
to  the  fact  that  this  petition  was  presented  at  the  General 
Court,  May  19,  1646,  "but  before  any  action  could  be  taken 
upon  it,  copies  were  extensively  dispersed,  not  only  in  the 
neighboring  colonies  of  Plymouth  and  Connecticut,  but  also 
to  the  New  Netherlands,  Virginia,  and  the  Bermudas,  where 
persons  who  were  ill-affected  to  the  government  of  Massa 
chusetts  could  ever  be  found.  The  course  of  the  petitioners 
excited  great  feeling,  and  not  a  little  anxiety  among  the  colo 
nial  leaders."  l  This  was  natural,  because  it  was  evident 
that  the  petitioners  were  attempting  to  secure  the  judgment 
of  the  other  colonies  against  Massachusetts,  and  by  indirect 
methods  to  control  her  action.  This  was  true,  as  we  have 
said,  not  only  in  this  country,  but  it  was  intended  chiefly  to 
secure  the  attention  of  the  home  government. 

These  people  were  Episcopalians,  but  there  was  also  a 
Presbyterian  influence  centred  in  it  from  Hingham,  of 
which  Hobart  was  the  chief  exponent.  The  national  reli 
gion  of  England  had  now  become,  by  action  of  Parliament, 

1  New  England's  Jonas,  xxvii. ;  Mass.  Hist.  Coll.,  5th  series,  148,  note. 


338  THOMAS   DUDLEY  [CH.  xxvm 

Presbyterian.  This  undoubtedly  increased  the  fears  of  the 
Massachusetts  government.  These  petitioners  appeared 
against  the  colony  in  England,  but  were  met  by  Governor 
Winslow,  its  able  agent. 

The  petition  was  finally  embodied  in  a  pamphlet,  as  we 
have  said,  and  brought  to  the  notice  of  the  government  with 
out  any  injurious  results  to  Massachusetts,  so  far  as  appears. 
Winthrop  says,  "  As  for  those  who  went  over  to  procure  us 
trouble,  God  met  with  them  all." 1 

It  has  been  sometimes  thought  that  the  resistance  of  the 
colony  to  Episcopalians  at  this  time  indicates  that  they 
were  not  sincere  when  they  wrote  from  the  Arbella,  April  7, 
1630,  to  their  brethren  in  and  of  the  Church  of  England, 
that  we  "  esteem  it  our  honor  to  call  the  Church  of  England, 
from  whence  we  rise,  our  dear  mother."  But  they  had 
received  great  light,  and  had  great  experience  and  responsi 
bilities  which  taxed  their  utmost  expedients  in  church  and 
state  since  that  day,  during  sixteen  years  of  doubt  and  suf 
fering.  It  is  only  needful  to  consider  the  progress  and 
change  in  England  itself  during  the  same  period,  particularly 
in  the  mother  church,  to  disarm  strictures  on  the  changes  in 
opinions  in  Boston,  Massachusetts.  The  state  religion  of 
England  had  gone  from  Episcopacy  to  Presbyterianism,  and 
a  powerful  faction  of  it  under  Cromwell  even  to  Independ 
ency  as  rank  as  the  Massachusetts  sort.  It  may  easily  be 
admitted  that  Massachusetts  led  in  the  revolt  for  liberty 
against  the  church  and  state,  and  everything  else.  It  is  a 
way  she  always  had.  Archbishop  Laud  once  suggested  to 
send  a  bishop  to  her  with  "  forces  to  compel  if  he  were  not 
otherwise  able  to  persuade  obedience."  2  It  was  feudalism 
in  church  and  state  that  the  Independents  were  at  war  with, 
in  Episcopacy,  Catholicism,  and  indeed  in  Presbyterianism.  It 
was  the  responsibility  of  the  individual  church  and  individual 
man  that  they  proclaimed  in  the  ears  of  all  the  world.  And 
this  was  the  direct  highway  to  democracy  in  politics,  which 

1  Winthrop,  ii.  *32i. 

2  Heylin's  Life  of  Laud. 


i64S]  FEUDALISM   DESTROYED  339 

end  of  the  way  they  did  not  at  first  so  much  regard  in  their 
religious  zeal  until  Winthrop  and  Dudley  found  themselves 
in  it,  with  no  possible  retreat,  if  at  first  they  wished  it. 
Harold  the  Saxon  was  at  the  front  and  feudalism  in  the 
rear. 


CHAPTER   XXIX 

THERE  was  on  the  part  of  the  government  a  deepening 
solicitude  respecting  the  final  results  of  the  revolution  now 
going  on  in  England,  and  which  was  then  far  more  nearly 
approaching  its  end  than  was  known  at  that  time.  How  and 
in  what  way  would  it  affect  America  ?  And  what  wise  mid 
dle  course  would  place  the  colony  in  the  best  position  in  the 
event  of  the  success  of  either  the  Commonwealth  or  the 
Royal  cause  in  England  ?  The  Puritan  side  was  earnestly 
espoused  by  America  at  heart,  while  prudence  required  the 
least  action  here  until  the  result  was  attained  abroad.  Win- 
throp  says,  "  Some  malignant  spirits  began  to  stir  and  declare 
themselves  for  the  king,  etc.,  whereupon  an  order  was  made 
to  restrain  such  course  and  to  prevent  all  such  turbulent 
practices,  either  by  action,  word,  or  writing." 1 

The  Royalists  and  Parliamentary  armies  took  the  field  in 
their  last  campaign  of  the  great  rebellion,  in  the  May  of  this 
very  year  1645,  at  about  the  time  that  Dudley  was  elected 
governor,  and  the  defeat  of  Charles  I.  at  Nasby,  where  he 
staked  and  lost  the  crown  of  England,  took  place  on  July  14. 
It  is  certain  that  the  chief  officers  in  the  government  of 
Massachusetts  were  weighed  down  with  grave  responsibili 
ties  respecting  the  colony,  in  the  midst  of  a  most  perilous 
crisis.  Dudley  was  again  chosen,  in  1645,  a  commissioner 
to  draft  laws.  He  had  assisted  in  creating  the  Body  of  Lib 
erties  in  1641,  and  in  forming  the  Articles  of  Confederation 
in  1643,  and  had  been  on  most  of  the  committees  for  con 
structing  laws  from  the  beginning  of  the  colony.  This  is 
very  significant,  and  assures  us  still  more  of  his  importance 
1  Winthrop,  ii.  *2I2. 


1645]  LAWS   AGAINST   BAPTISTS  341 

and  standing  among  his  contemporaries  in  early  Massa 
chusetts.1 

The  Puritans  regarded  the  Anabaptists  as  equally  danger 
ous  to  true  religion  with  the  fanatical  Familists  of  Miinster 
in  Germany.  Moreover,  if  their  teachings  on  the  subject 
of  baptism  were  correct,  the  baptism,  and  administration  of 
the  same,  upon  which  the  church  of  New  England  rested, 
which  also  was  one  of  the  sacraments  which  was  the  gate 
way  to  enfranchisement  and  political  power,  was  void  and  of 
no  effect.  They  might  with  reason  regard  the  Baptists  as 
determined  on  the  destruction  of  their  entire  enterprise  and 
policy.  The  Court  refused  in  October,  1645,  to  alter  at  all, 
or  explain  its  laws  against  Anabaptists.2  This  year  of  Dud 
ley's  gubernatorial  experience  had  been  an  eventful  one,  in 
establishing  educational  institutions,  in  uttering  a  vigorous 
protest  against  slavery,  in  settling  the  old  feud  between  the 
Mohegans  and  Narragansetts,  and  in  the  struggles  between 
the  government  and  the  people  and  between  the  departments 
of  government. 

It  was  also,  as  we  have  already  observed,  the  period  of 
the  collapse  of  the  British  monarchy,  and  the  culmination 
of  the  great  rebellion. 

Dudley  secured  and  held  the  esteem  and  confidence  of  his 
fellow-citizens  this  year  as  always  before,  as  is  well  shown  in 
many  ways.  The  General  Court  passed  the  following  order 
during  the  subsequent  autumn :  "  The  Court  doth  thank 
fully  acknowledge  the  good  service  our  honored  deputy  gov 
ernor  [Thomas  Dudley]  hath  done  in  the  place  of  governor 
the  last  year  [1645],  and  are  not  a  little  troubled  that  the 
pressing  and  many  urgent  necessities  and  necessary  charges 
of  this  colony  are  such  as  to  intervene  between  his  deserved 
merits  and  the  just  recompense  which  this  Court  is  used  to 
allow ;  but  believing  he  is  no  less  sensible  of  the  premises 
than  ourselves,  we  doubt  not  of  his  loving  acceptance  of  so 
slender  an  acknowledgment,  have  thought  meet  to  order  that 

1  Mass.  Col.  Rec.,  ii.  109  ;  Colonial  Laws,  73. 

2  Mass.  Col.  Rec.,  ii.  141. 


342  THOMAS   DUDLEY  [CH.  xxix 

our  honored  deputy  governor  [Thomas  Dudley]  shall  be 
allowed  out  of  the  next  levy  the  sum  of  sixty  pounds."  l 

The  Assembly  of  Divines  met  in  the  choir  of  Westminster 
Abbey,  July  i,  1643,  and  sat  in  the  chapel  of  Henry  VII., 
or  the  Jerusalem  Chamber,  until  the  autumn  of  1647.  In 
deed,  it  never  dissolved,  but  ceased  to  be  in  1653  under  the 
iron  hand  of  Cromwell,  the  Independent,  influenced  in  the 
order  of  its  going  at  last  by  the  same  irresistible  power 
which  turned  the  Long  Parliament  out  into  the  cold  world. 

This  assembly  and  the  House  of  Commons  sat,  both 
bodies,  September  25,  1643,  in  St.  Margaret's  Church,  near 
the  Abbey,  and  adopted  a  "  Solemn  League  and  Covenant," 
pledging  the  nation  to  the  abolition  of  Episcopacy  and  the 
establishment  of  Presbyterianism  in  its  place.  The  Com 
mons  usually  was  holding  its  sittings  then  in  the  Chapter 
House  of  the  Abbey.2 

It  enacted  an  ordinance,  January  6,  1643,  that  the  "Book 
of  Common  Prayer  be  abolished."  It  created  a  system  of 
rigid  Presbyterian  discipline,  and  set  forth  a  Confession  of 
Faith,  which  bears  the  name  adopted  by  Parliament  in  1646 
as  the  Creed  of  the  English  Church,  and  lastly  a  longer  and 
shorter  Catechism. 

But  the  home  government  could  not  secure  unqualified 
obedience.  Large  numbers  of  English  people  adhered  to 
Episcopacy  and  others  of  the  Irish  to  the  Roman  Catholic 
faith ;  only  Scotland  was  devoted,  constant,  and  loyal,  and 
to-day  it  is  steadfast,  immovable,  always  abounding  in  Pres 
byterianism  :  while  the  Independents,  who  were  desiring  to 
escape  from  the  restraints  and  dictations  of  arbitrary  church 
government,  and  were  more  and  more  democratic  in  poli 
tics,  were  rapidly  gaining  ascendency  in  the  British  army 
under  Parliament.  Presbyterianism  was  made  to  appear, 
perhaps  justly,  to  this  restless,  seeking  multitude  of  people, 
to  be  only  a  subterfuge  little  removed,  in  effect,  from  the 

1  Mass.  Col.  Rec.,  ii.  165. 

2  For  a  description  of  this   assembly  see  Letters  and  Journals  of 
Robert  Baillie,  ii.  107-109 ;  Life  of  Bishop  Sanderson,  by  Izaak  Walton. 


1642]  INDEPENDENCY    IN   NEW   ENGLAND  343 

hierarchies  of  Episcopacy  or  of  Rome.  The  coveted  freedom 
was  no  more  secure,  they  thought,  under  presbyteries  than 
under  bishops. 

It  was  quite  different  in  America.  The  new  Independent 
Church  system  had  been  on  trial  here  many  years  before 
Presbyterianism  became  the  national  religion  of  England. 
Churches  of  the  Independent  order  and  states  were  merged 
and  closely  joined  in  their  operations,  so  as  to  advance 
together  with  amazing  success.  Here  at  least  the  age  of 
experiment  was  over,  and  there  was  every  reason  for  keeping 
aloof  from  this  unfortunate  religious  visitation  and  adversity 
which  for  a  time  overwhelmed  the  mother  country. 

The  influence  of  New  England  in  restraining  the  progress 
of  Presbyterianism  in  England,  and  in  extending  the  system 
of  Independency  among  her  people  and  the  rank  and  file  of 
the  army  of  the  Commonwealth,  was  measureless. 

"  Cromwell  and  Vane  and  Fieness  and  St.  John  used  the 
tracts  of  Cotton  and  Hooker  and  Norton,  and  other  New 
England  ministers,  as  being  for  a  thousand  reasons  the  best 
weapons  in  their  arsenal/' l 

"In  the  year  1642,  letters  came  to  Mr.  Cotton,  of  Boston, 
Mr.  Hooker,  of  Hartford,  and  Mr.  Davenport,  of  New  Haven, 
signed  by  several  of  the  nobility,  divers  members  of  the 
House  of  Commons,  and  some  ministers,  to  call  them,  or 
some  of  them,  if  all  could  not  come,  to  assist  in  the  Assem 
bly  of  Divines  at  Westminster."  2 

Hooker  was  a  very  distinguished  writer  upon  the  subject 
of  Independency,  and  was  well  prepared  to  maintain  his  cause 
before  any  body  of  men,  but  he  was  too  wise  to  take  part  in 
a  convention,  the  conclusions  of  which  in  important  particu 
lars  he  was  certain  ever  afterwards  to  be  forced  to  antago 
nize.  Moreover  the  assembly  was  of  political  origin,  and  the 
prudent  policy  for  Americans,  the  very  safety  of  their  cher 
ished  institutions,  both  civil  and  ecclesiastical,  had  always 
depended  upon  severance  from  England. 

1  E.  E.  Hale,  Mass.  Early  Hist.,  Lowell  Inst.  Lectures,  457. 
z  Hutchinson,  i.  115. 


344  THOMAS   DUDLEY  [CH.  xxix 

Their  independence  in  religion  and  politics,  their  refusal 
to  allow  appeals  to  the  throne  or  courts  of  England,  was  the 
germ  of  our  nationality  developed  in  the  Revolution.  Hooker 
avoided  in  this  spirit  all  foreign  jurisdiction,  and,  with  his 
associates  here  behind  the  eternal  barriers  of  the  ocean, 
while  England  was  overwhelmed  with  her  own  calamities, 
proceeded  to  construct  in  America  the  ideal  state,  freed 
largely  from  the  useless  trumpery  which  has  adhered  to  and 
incumbered  old  and  worn-out  systems  of  church  and  state. 
Thus  they  flourished,  while  the  throne  of  Charles  I.  toppled 
over,  and  the  British  people  "  gart  kings  ken  that  they  had 
a  lith  in  their  necks,"  amid  the  shattering  of  armies,  the 
quelling  of  factions,  and  the  overthrow  of  creeds  in  father 
land.  No  Americans  took  part  in  the  Assembly  of  Divines. 
Its  Confession  was  adopted  here ;  its  Discipline  was  re 
jected. 

Winthrop  informs  us  that  in  1643  "  there  was  an  assem 
bly  at  Cambridge  of  all  the  elders  in  the  country  (about  fifty 
in  all).  .  .  .  They  sat  in  the  college  and  had  their  diet  there, 
after  the  manner  of  scholars'  commons,  but  somewhat  better, 
yet  so  ordered  as  it  came  not  to  above  six  pence  the  meal 
for  a  person. 

"Mr.  Cotton  and  Mr.  Hooker  were  chosen  moderators. 
The  principal  occasion  was  because  some  of  the  elders  went 
about  to  set  up  some  things  according  to  the  Presbytery,  as 
of  Newbury,  etc.  The  assembly  concluded  against  some 
parts  of  the  Presbyterial  way,  and  the  Newbury  ministers 
took  time  to  consider  the  arguments,"  etc.1 

This  synod  at  its  last  and  important  session,  August  6, 
1648,  approved  of  the  Westminster  Confession  of  Faith,  but 
not  the  Presbyterian  Discipline.  It  created  what  was  called 
a  Platform  of  Church  Discipline,  "to  be  presented  to  the 
churches  and  the  General  Court  for  their  acceptance  in  the 
Lord." 

This  action,  it  will  be  remembered,  was  ten  years  previous 
to  the  conference  at  the  Savoy  Palace  in  London,  which 
1  Winthrop,  ii.  *i$6,  *I37- 


1651]  THE   CAMBRIDGE   PLATFORM  345 

did  similar  constructive  work  for  Congregationalism  in  that 
country  in  1658. 

The  General  Court  commended  the  Platform  to  the 
churches  for  consideration  one  year.  Their  prolonged,  pa 
tient,  thoughtful  deliberation  was  wise  and  exemplary,  and 
after  two  years,  in  1651,  October  14,  they  gave  "their  tes 
timony  to  the  said  Book  of  Discipline  that,  for  the  substance 
thereof,  it  was  that  they  had  practiced  and  did  believe."  l  It 
had  thus  been  more  than  five  years  in  coming  to  maturity 
and  perfection.  Governor  Winthrop  did  not  survive  to  wit 
ness  this  final  act  of  the  Court. 

Governor  Dudley  and  Increase  Nowell  were  the  only 
assistants  in  1651  who  were  present  at  the  last  meeting  at 
Southampton,  March  18,  1629-30;  and  Dudley  and  his  son- 
in-law,  Governor  Simon  Bradstreet,  were  the  only  assistants 
now  present  who  were  at  the  meeting  on  the  Arbella,  March 
23.  These  three  persons  are  all  that  remained  in  the  Court 
in  1651,  of  the  assistants  who  first  met  at  Charlestown  in 
America,  August  23,  1630.  It  is  quite  certain  that  while 
Dudley  lived  his  influence  was  far  greater  than  that  of  any 
other  assistant  except  Winthrop. 

We  may  therefore  well  conceive  his  satisfaction  when  at 
last  the  Court  had  placed  upon  New  England  Congregation 
alism  its  final  crowning  seal  and  testimony.  He  might  now 
with  conscious  joy  and  complacency  review  the  beginning, 
progress  through  sufferings,  and  the  outcome  already  before 
him  in  society,  church,  and  state.  He  might  behold  with 
pride  cultivated  farms,  thriving  towns,  and  prosperous  vil 
lages.  He  could  not  then  see,  as  we  see,  the  transformation 
which  in  two  and  one  half  centuries  was  to  compass  the 
earth,  and  that  that  freedom  to  which  they  contributed  so 
much  would  like  leaven  develop  public  thought  and  opinion, 
and  that  the  chainless  mind  would  in  science,  art,  politics, 
religion,  and  in  many  things  pertaining  to  human  life,  with 
irresistible  force  and  sweep,  change  all  things,  creating 
almost  a  new  heaven  and  a  new  earth  for  our  abode  and  con- 
1  Mass.  Col.  Rec.,  ii.  285;  iii.  177,  240. 


346  THOMAS   DUDLEY  [CH.  xxix 

scions  existence  here.  Neither  need  we  plume  ourselves 
with  undue  pride  and  arrogance,  for  the  end  of  human  pro 
gress  is  not  yet. 

The  government  of  Massachusetts  was  almost  constantly 
disturbed  by  the  intrigues  and  scheming  of  persons  in  Eng 
land,  who  had  been  here,  and  did  not  take  kindly  to  Puritan 
methods  or  colonial  justice,  and  possessed  often  an  influence 
which  rendered  them  dangerous  to  the  colony  and  to  its  lead 
ing  citizens.  Public  affairs  were  in  such  a  state  of  turmoil 
much  of  the  time  that  it  was  possible  for  persons  of  little 
importance  in  themselves,  being  so  far  removed  from  the 
scene  of  the  complaint,  to  do  considerable  mischief  before 
the  remedy  could  be  applied  to  heal  the  injury. 

Gorton,  Child,  and  others  published  tracts  in  England 
with  the  purpose  of  doing  all  that  they  could  to  weaken 
and  destroy  whatever  confidence  in  Massachusetts  and  her 
methods  and  purposes  the  English  people  and  government 
might  entertain. 

The  colony  secured  the  valuable  services  and  the  great 
influence  of  Governor  Edward  Winslow  as  its  agent  in  Eng 
land,  as  we  have  mentioned,  who  did  for  it  an  excellent  ser 
vice  ;  and  among  other  things  prepared  and  issued  two  very 
comprehensive  and  valuable  tracts  in  answer  to  those  ful 
minated  against  the  colony  and  its  proceedings. 

Winslow,1  as  he  was  departing  for  England  as  the  agent 
of  Massachusetts,  to  represent,  among  other  services,  the 
colony  before  the  commissioners  of  foreign  plantations,  in 
answer  to  the  petition  of  Samuel  Gorton,  of  Rhode  Island, 
and  others,  received  from  the  Court  a  written  answer  to  be 
used,  also  his  own  commission  giving  him  authority  and  full 
instructions. 

1  Rev.  John  Eliot  said  in  1646,  "  Gorton  found  favor  in  England, 
having  none  to  inform  against  him  what  he  was,  but  Mr.  Winslow  was 
sent  over,  whom  the  Lord  direct,  protect,  and  prosper."  (Hist.Gen. 
Reg.,  xxxiii.  65.)  He  says  further  in  1647,  "  God  so  graciously  pro 
spered  Mr.  Winslow's  endeavors  in  England,  against  Gorton  and  his 
accomplices,  that  all  their  great  hopes  were  dashed  ;  and  they,  among 
us,  a  little  pulled  in  their  heads,  and  held  their  peace."  (Ib.,  238.) 


1646]          PRIVATE   INSTRUCTIONS   TO   WINSLOW        347 

But  his  private  instructions  are  far  more  interesting  and 
important  to  us  than  the  public  instructions,  as  they  reveal 
the  real  and  genuine  interpretation  of  their  charter  rights  as 
the  Court  then  held  them. 

It  is  safe  to  say  that  no  persons  ever  had  a  better  oppor 
tunity  to  know  the  facts  than  themselves,  no  one  knew  all 
the  details  more  thoroughly,  no  one  had  more  at  stake  in  the 
issue,  and  they  here  express  themselves  to  themselves,  in 
simple  confidence. 

They  say,  "  If  you  shall  be  demanded  about  these  par 
ticulars  :  — 

"  Obj.  i.  Why  we  make  not  out  our  process  in  the  king's 
name  ?  You  shall  answer :  — 

"  i.  That  we  should  thereby  waive  the  power  of  our  gov 
ernment  granted  to  us,  for  we  claim  not  as  by  commission, 
but  by  a  free  donation  of  absolute  government.  2.  For  avoid 
ing  appeals,  etc. 

"  Obj.  2.  That  our  government  is  arbitrary. 

"  Ans.  We  have  four  or  five  hundred  express  laws,  as  near 
the  laws  of  England  as  may  be  ;  and  yearly  we  make  more, 
and  where  we  have  no  law,  we  judge  by  the  word  of  God,  as 
near  as  we  can. 

"  Obj.  3.  About  enlarging  our  limits,  etc. 

"  Ans.  Such  Indians  as  are  willing  to  come  under  our  gov 
ernment  we  know  no  reason  to  refuse.  Some  Indians  we 
have  subdued  by  just  war,  as  the  Pequods.  Some  English 
also,  having  purchased  lands  of  the  Indians,  have  submitted 
to  our  government. 

"  Obj.  4.  About  our  subjection  to  England. 

"Ans.  i.  We  are  to  pay  the  one  fifth  part  of  ore  of  gold 
and  silver. 

"  2.  In  being  faithful  and  firm  to  the  state  of  England, 
endeavoring  to  walk  with  God  in  upholding  his  truth,  etc., 
and  praying  for  it. 

"  3.  In  framing  our  government  according  to  our  patent, 
so  near  as  we  may. 

"  Obj.  5.  About  exercising  admiral  jurisdiction. 


348  THOMAS   DUDLEY  [CH.  xxix 

"  Ans.  i.  We  are  not  restrained  by  our  charter. 

"  2.  We  have  power  given  us  to  rule,  punish,  pardon,  etc., 
in  all  cases,  ergo  in  maritime. 

"  3.  We  have  power  granted  us  to  defend  ourselves  and 
offend  our  enemies,  as  well  by  sea  as  by  land,  ergo  we  must 
needs  have  power  to  judge  of  such  cases. 

"  4.  Without  this,  neither  our  own  people  nor  strangers 
could  have  justice  from  us  in  such  cases. 

"  Obj.  6.  About  our  independency  upon  that  state. 

"Ans.  Our  dependency  is  in  these  points  :  I.  We  have  re 
ceived  our  government  and  other  privileges  by  our  charter. 
2.  WTe  owe  allegiance  and  fidelity  to  that  state.  3.  In  erect 
ing  a  government  here  accordingly,  and  subjecting  thereto, 
we  therein  yield  subjection  to  that  state.  4.  In  rendering 
one  fifth  part  of  ore,  etc.  5.  We  depend  upon  that  state  for 
protection  and  immunities  as  freeborn  Englishmen. 

"  Obj.  7.  Seeing  we  hold  of  East  Greenwich,  etc.,  why 
every  freeholder  of  forty  shillings  per  annum  have  not  votes 
in  elections,  etc.,  as  in  England. 

"  Ans.  Our  charter  gives  that  liberty  expressly  to  the  free 
men  only. 

"  Obj.  8.  By  your  charter,  such  as  we  transport  are  to  live 
under  his  majesty's  allegiance. 

"Ans.  So  they  all  do,  and  so  intended,  so  far  as  we  know. 

"  Obj.  9.  About  a  general  governor. 

"Ans.  i.  Our  charter  gives  us  absolute  power  of  govern 
ment.  2.  On  the  terms  above  specified,  we  conceive,  the 
patent  hath  no  such  thing  in  it,  neither  expressed  nor 
implied.  3.  We  had  not  transported  ourselves  and  our  fam 
ilies  upon  such  terms.  4.  Other  plantations  have  been 
undertaken  at  the  charge  of  others  in  England,  and  the 
planters  have  their  dependence  upon  the  companies  there, 
and  those  planters  go  and  come  chiefly  for  matter  of  profit ; 
but  we  come  to  abide  here,  and  to  plant  the  gospel,  and 
people  the  country,  and  herein  hath  God  marvelously  blessed 
us."1 

1  Winthrop,  ii.  *296-*3Oi. 


1646]  VISITATION   OF   CATERPILLARS  349 

This  short  catechism  presents  the  position  of  the  Puritans 
and  their  charter  rights  with  more  clearness  and  force  than 
many  pages  of  authors  in  this  immediate  period,  who  have 
had  much  to  say  about  the  subject  which  appeared  to  be 
wise  and  true  to  them,  no  doubt,  but  which  was  probably 
neither. 

The  firm  and  abiding  friendship  of  Cromwell  and  of  the 
Independents  in  England  was  an  impediment  that  neither 
hatred,  revenge,  nor  jealousy  could  remove  or  do  away  with, 
and  it  served  until  the  colony  had  passed  its  first  generation 
of  adolescence,  and  in  its  mature  independence  asked  for  no 
parental  tenderness  towards  it. 

It  was  provided  by  the  Court  early  in  this  year,  whether 
wisely  or  not,  persons  will  differ,  "  that  it  shall  be  lawful  for 
any  man  that  is  on  his  journey  (and  remote  from  any  house 
five  miles)  to  take  tobacco,  so  that  thereby  he  sets  not  the 
woods  on  fire  to  the  damage  of  any  man." l 

The  early  records  of  Roxbury,  the  home  of  Dudley,  fur 
nish  us  an  account  of  what  may  have  been  a  visitation  by 
the  army  worm,  which  occurred  in  1646.  "  This  year,  about 
the  end  of  the  Fifth  Month,  we  had  a  very  strong  hand  of 
God  upon  us,  for  upon  a  sudden  innumerable  armies  of  cat 
erpillars  filled  the  country  all  over  all  the  English  planta 
tions,  which  devoured  some  whole  meadows  of  grass,  and 
greatly  devoured  barley,  being  the  most  grown,  and  tender 
corn,  eating  off  all  the  blades  and  beards,  but  left  the  corn, 
only  many  ears  they  quite  eat  off  by  eating  the  green  straw 
asunder  below  the  ear,  so  that  barley  was  generally  half 
spoiled ;  likewise  they  much  hurt  wheat,  by  eating  the 
blades  off,  but  wheat  had  the  less  hurt  because  it  was  a  little 
forwarder  than  barley,  or  harder  and  dryer,  and  they  less 
meddled  with  it.  As  for  rye,  it  was  so  hard  and  near  ripe, 
that  they  touched  it  not.  But  above  all  grains  they  devoured 
oats.  And  in  some  places  they  fell  upon  Indian  corn,  and 
quite  devoured  it ;  in  other  places  they  touched  it  not.  They 
would  cross  highways  by  one  thousand. 
1  Mass.  Col.  Rec.,  ii.  151. 


35o  THOMAS   DUDLEY  [CH.  xxix 

"  Much  prayer  there  was  made  to  God  about  it,  and  fasting 
in  divers  places,  and  the  Lord  heard,  and  on  a  sudden  took 
them  all  away  again  in  all  parts  of  the  country,  to  the  won 
derment  of  all  men.  It  was  the  Lord,  for  it  was  done  sud 
denly."  l  This  record  continues  to  be  interesting.  It  informs 
us  that  "this  winter  of  1646  was  one  of  the  mildest  we  ever 
had ;  no  snow  all  winter  long ;  nor  sharp  weather.  We  never 
had  a  bad  day  to  go  preach  to  the  Indians  all  this  winter, 
praised  be  the  Lord."2 

The  New  England  colonies  were  for  a  long  time  disturbed 
with  encroachments  of  the  French  on  the  north  and  east, 
and  not  much  less  by  the  Dutch  on  the  west,  and  were  at 
the  same  time  required  to  give  constant  attention  to  the 
Indians  all  about  them. 

There  were  two  rival  French  governors  of  Acadia,  which 
included  Nova  Scotia,  New  Brunswick,  and  a  part  of  Maine. 
Their  names  were  La  Tour  and  D'Aulnay.  They  both 
claimed  high  authority  from  the  French  government,  assur 
ing  the  Court  of  Massachusetts  that  they  were  each  able  to 
be  of  great  service  to  them,  or,  on  the  other  hand,  most  dan 
gerous  enemies,  with  the  throne  of  France  to  enforce  their 
mischievous  designs. 

La  Tour  pretended  to  be  a  Huguenot  to  gain  his  points 
with  the  Puritans,  but  he  had  not  religion  enough  of  any 
sort  to  embarrass  his  work  in  wickedness.  They  both  in 
turn  at  different  times  were  entertained  with  distinguished 
honor  by  the  authorities  in  Boston,  as  the  representatives  of 
a  powerful  European  state,  and  neighbors  whose  friendship 
and  commercial  importance  demanded  the  attention  of  the 
public,  with  the  bestowal  of  every  civility  and  considerate 
courtesy.  They  both  betrayed  the  confidence  reposed  in 
them.  They  both  managed  to  keep  Massachusetts  in  a  state 
of  anxiety  by  charging  her  with  too  great  attentions  to  the 
interests  of  the  other  man. 

The  issue  finally  entered  the  politics  of  the  colony.     The 

1  C.  M.  Ellis's  Hist,  of  Roxbury,  75,  76.   „ 
*  Ib.,  76. 


1646]  D'AULNAY  AND   LA  TOUR  351 

agricultural  and  country  people  thought  that  Boston,  in  its 
over-zeal  for  traffic,  was  making  far  too  intimate  "  friends  of 
the  mammon  of  unrighteousness,"  Popish  idolaters.  They 
had  no  confidence  in  the  foreigners,  nor  in  the  worldly  wis 
dom  which  cultivated  their  friendship.  Winthrop  lost  pop 
ularity  in  the  country,  and  was  forced  to  bear  the  reproach 
of  neglecting  the  rest  of  the  colony  while  he  fostered  the 
commerce  of  Boston. 

La  Tour  appears  first  in  our  history  in  1633,  and  one  or 
the  other  comes  into  the  foreground  frequently  during  the 
succeeding  fifteen  years.  Finally  D'Aulnay  died,  after  he 
had  ruined  La  Tour  and  blasted  his  prosperity,  but  La  Tour 
married  the  widow  of  D'Aulnay  and  secured  the  wealth  of 
his  enemy  and  his  own.  This  recalls  the  south  sea  island 
cannibal  who  quieted  his  title  to  real  estate  by  consuming 
the  man  who  was  in  possession  before. 

No  portion  of  this  account,  as  we  have  said,  of  the  doings 
of  the  fathers  of  Massachusetts  in  their  intercourse  with 
these  two  Frenchmen  is  of  greater  historic  significance  than 
the  self-contained  manner  in  which  they  assumed  absolute 
and  sovereign  authority  to  treat  with  the  agents  of  a  foreign 
state  without  the  least  thought  of  the  home  government,  and 
without,  so  far  as  we  know,  ever  reporting  their  doings  in 
the  premises  to  her,  or  recognizing  any  duty  whatever  to  do 
so.  Thus  one  event  after  another  reveals  to  us  that  soon  or 
late,  the  rupture  and  severance  from  England  would  be  in 
evitable.  They  were  already  acting  the  part  of  an  independ 
ent  state,  and  this  was  certain  to  be  only  preliminary  to  the 
creation  of  the  state  itself. 

Dudley  had  a  commission,  with  other  persons  from  the 
General  Court,  to  proceed  as  agent  or  minister  plenipoten 
tiary  to  the  home  and  country  of  D'Aulnay  at  Penobscot, 
and  make  treaties  of  settlement  and  of  peace  respecting  all 
matters  in  dispute.  D'Aulnay  regarded  very  greatly  the 
dignity  and  high  official  standing  of  these  commissioners, 
and  was  now  certain  that  Massachusetts  intended  to  accom 
plish  something,  and  perfect  the  treaties.  He  would  accept, 


352  THOMAS   DUDLEY  [CH.  xxix 

he  said,  the  honor  and  courtesy,  and  not  requiring  the  visit 
to  himself  would  send  his  agents  to  Boston  instead,  with 
authority  to  make  the  treaties,  which  he  accordingly  did 
after  some  delay.  It  is  said  that  he  changed  the  place  of 
meeting  to  Boston  adroitly,  to  avoid  the  heavy  expense 
of  entertaining  these  dignitaries  in  a  manner  equal  to  his 
own  former  hospitable  receptions  in  the  capital  of  Massa 
chusetts. 

It  is  evident  that  the  Court  considered  this  mission  im 
portant,  since  they  appointed  almost  their  leading  man,  at 
seventy  years  of  age,  to  go  to  Penobscot  to  be  exposed  to 
the  peril  of  capture,  and  to  other  dangers. 

The  words  of  the  Court  are  charged  with  affectionate 
regard  and  appreciation.  They  say,  "  We  have  hereby  au 
thorized  and  appointed  our  much  honored  and  right  trusty 
and  well  beloved  Thomas  Dudley,  Esq.,  the  deputy  governor 
of  this  jurisdiction,"  etc.  And  later  they  say,  "  This  Court 
considering  that  the  deputy  governor,  in  regard  of  his  age, 
may  (through  sickness,  or  other  bodily  infirmity)  be  disabled 
for  the  voyage  at  such  time  as  the  commissioners  are  to  go 
to  Penobscot,  in  which  event  his  son-in-law,  Governor  Simon 
Bradstreet,  is  to  be  his  substitute."  1 

We  cannot  reflect  upon  the  exposure  of  Boston  to  the 
guns  of  these  French  ships,  with  their  unscrupulous  and 
piratical  commanders,  and  call  to  mind  other  visitors  at  other 
times  of  the  same  evil  quality,  without  appreciating  the  fore 
sight  and  wisdom  of  Dudley  in  desiring  to  place  the  capital 
interior,  at  Cambridge,  until  they  were  strong  enough  to 
fortify  the  harbor  of  Boston  against  the  artillery  of  Europe. 
Winthrop  evidently  regarded  their  escape  from  these  rovers 
of  the  sea  as  quite  remarkable.2 

1  Mass.  Col.  Rec.,  ii.  158, 159. 

2  The  following  quotation  from  a  letter  of  Governor  Edward  Wins- 
low  of  Plymouth  to  Winthrop  shows  how  much  both  colonies  regarded 
and  relied  on  Dudley  :  "  I  trust  when  Mr.  Dudley  goeth  to  Mr.  D'Aul- 
nay,  he  will  put  an  end  also  to  our  controversy  with  him,  and  make 
but  one  work  of   both.  .  .  .  Yours  as  ever,  EDWARD  WINSLOW." 
(Mass.  Hist.  Coll.,  4th  series,  vi.) 


CHAPTER   XXX 

THE  earnestness  and  sincerity  of  the  Puritan  fathers  in 
soundness  of  the  faith,  enlightened  by  thorough  scholarship, 
is  marked  and  everywhere  evident  in  their  work.  To  their 
credit  be  it  said,  they  planted  the  tree  of  knowledge  in  church 
and  state,  for  the  saving  of  society. 

They  laid,  with  patriotic,  religious  fervor,  the  groundwork 
of  fair  Harvard,  and  of  the  New  England  common  schools, 
which,  like  the  mid-day  sun  of  August  that  clears  the  morn 
ing  mists,  swept  in  time  from  their  broad  foundations  the 
dust  of  superstition,  inseparable  from  their  age. 

They  say  in  1646,  "This  Court,  being  sensible  of  the 
necessity  and  singular  use  of  good  literature  in  managing 
the  things  of  greatest  concernment  in  this  commonwealth, 
as  also  perceiving  the  fewness  of  persons  accomplished  to 
such  employments,  especially  for  future  times  [let  us  with 
grateful  veneration  regard  these  words],  have  thought  meet 
to  propose  to  all  and  every  of  reverend  elders  and  brethren, 
that  due  care  be  had  from  time  to  time  to  improve  and  exer 
cise  such  students,  especially  in  divinity,  as  through  the 
good  hand  of  God  may  issue  forth  of  the  colleges,  that  so 
for  want  of  employment  or  maintenance  they  be  not  forced 
from  us,  and  we  left  destitute  of  help  that  way."  l 

It  is  far  more  satisfactory,  in  attempting  to  study  the 
thoughts  and  methods  of  any  people,  to  let  them  speak  for 
themselves.  The  following  extracts  from  the  records  of  the 
commissioners  of  the  United  Colonies  in  1646  seem  to  be 
instructive.  These  words  are  not  the  expressed  opinions  of 
Massachusetts  alone,  but  of  the  confederacy. 

"Upon  serious  consideration  of  the  spreading  nature  of 
1  Mass.  Col.  Rec.,  ii.  167. 


354  THOMAS   DUDLEY  [CH.  xxx 

error,  the  dangerous  growth,  and  effects  thereof  in  other 
places,  and  particularly  how  the  purity  and  power,  both  of 
religion  and  of  civil  order,  is  already  much  complained  (cor 
rupted)  if  not  wholly  lost  in  a  part  of  New  England  by  a 
licentious  liberty  granted  and  settled,  whereby  many,  casting 
off  the  rule  of  the  word,  profess  and  practice  what  is  good 
in  their  own  eyes ;  and  upon  information  of  what  petitions 
have  been  lately  put  up  in  some  of  the  colonies,  against  the 
good  and  strait  ways  of  Christ,  both  in  the  churches  and  in 
the  commonwealth,  the  commissioners  remembering  that 
those  colonies,  for  themselves  and  their  posterity,  did  enter 
into  this  firm  and  perpetual  league,  as  for  other  respects,  so 
for  mutual  advice,  that  the  truth  and  liberties  of  the  gospel 
might  be  preserved,  and  propagated,  thought  it  their  duty 
seriously  to  commend  it  to  the  care  and  consideration  of 
each  General  Court  within  these  United  Colonies,  that  as 
they  have  laid  their  foundations  and  measured  the  temple  of 
God,  the  worship  and  worshipers  by  that  strait  reed  God 
hath  put  into  their  hands,  so  they  would  walk  on  and  build 
up  (all  discouragements  and  difficulties  notwithstanding) 
with  an  undaunted  heart,  an  unwearied  hand,  according  to 
the  same  rules  and  patterns. 

"  That  a  due  watch  be  kept  and  continued  at  the  doors  of 
God's  house,  that  none  be  admitted  as  members  of  the  body 
of  Christ  but  such  as  hold  forth  effectual  calling  and  thereby 
union  with  Christ  the  head,  and  that  those  whom  Christ  hath 
received  are  to  enter  by  an  express  covenant  to  attend  and 
observe  the  laws  and  duties  of  that  spiritual  corporation,  that 
Baptism,  the  seal  of  the  covenant,  be  administered  only  to 
such  members  and  their  immediate  seed,  that  Anabaptism, 
Familism,  Antinomianism,  and  generally  all  errors  of  like 
nature  which  oppose  and  undermine,  and  slight  either  the 
Scriptures,  the  Sabbath,  or  other  ordinances  of  God,  and 
bring  in  and  cry  up  unwarranted  revelations,  inventions  of 
men,  or  any  carnal  liberty,  under  a  deceitful  color  of  liberty 
of  conscience,  may  be  seasonably  and  duly  suppressed, 
though  they  wish  as  much  forbearance  and  respect  may  be 


1646]  HISTORIC   RECORDS  355 

had  of  tender  conscience  seeking  light  as  may  stand  with 
the  purity  of  religion  and  peace  of  the  churches.  (The  com 
missioners  of  Plymouth  desire  further  consideration  concern 
ing  this  advice  given  to  the  General  Courts.) 

"And  lastly,  that  some  serious  provision  be  speedily  made 
against  oppression,  whether  in  commodities  or  wages,  against 
excess  and  disorder  in  apparel,  drink,  and  all  other  loose  and 
sinful  miscarriages  not  fit  to  be  named  amongst  Christians, 
by  which  the  name  of  our  holy  God  is  much  dishonored,  and 
the  churches  of  Christ  in  those  parts  are  much  reproached, 
as  if  they  were  strict  in  their  forms  only,  or  had  respect  only 
to  one  of  the  tables  of  God's  law,  their  fruits  in  reference  to 
the  other  being  nothing  better  than  the  wild  vines  and  bram 
bles  in  the  wilderness. 

"  If  thus  we  be  for  God,  he  will  certainly  be  with  us.  And 
though  the  God  of  the  world  (as  he  is  styled)  be  worshiped, 
and  by  usurpation  set  upon  his  throne,  in  the  main  the 
greatest  part  of  America,  yet  this  small  part  and  portion  may 
be  vindicated  as  by  the  right  hand  of  Jehovah,  and  justly 
called  Emanuel's  land." 

The  foregoing  conclusions  were  agreed  upon  by  the  com 
missioners  of  the  United  Colonies,  September  18,  1646* 

The  following  words,  by  the  same  commissioners,  at  'the 
same  time,  are  full  of  experience,  pathos,  and  beauty,  which 
must  appeal  to  the  heart  of  every  American  :  — 

"  Whereas  our  good  God  hath  from  the  first  done  great 
things  for  his  people  in  these  colonies,  in  sundry  respects 
worthy  to  be  written  in  our  hearts,  with  a  deep  and  charac 
tered  impression  not  to  be  blotted  out  and  forgotten,  and  to 
be  transmitted  to  posterity,  that  they  may  know  the  Lord, 
and  how  he  hath  glorified  his  grace  and  mercy  in  our  foun 
dations  and  beginnings,  that  they  also  may  trust  in  him, 
and  walk  with  a  right  foot  before  him  without  warping  and 
declining.  It  is  desired  by  the  commissioners,  that  all  the 
colonies  (as  they  may)  would  collect  and  gather  up  the  many 
special  providences  of  God  towards  them,  since  their  arrival 
1  Plymouth  Col.  Rec.,  ix.  81,  82. 


356  THOMAS   DUDLEY  [CH.  xxx 

and  settling  in  these  parts,  how  he  hath  made  room  for  them, 
how  his  hand  hath  been  with  them  in  laying  their  founda 
tions  in  church  and  commonwealth,  how  he  hath  cast  the 
dread  of  his  people  (weak  in  themselves)  upon  the  Indians, 
and  scattered  their  counsels,  broken  their  plots  and  attempts, 
and  continued  our  peace  (notwithstanding  their  insolences, 
rage,  and  malice),  made  glorious  provisions  for  us,  and  in  all 
respects  hath  been  a  sun  and  shield  to  us,  and  that  memo 
rials  being  made,  they  may  be  duly  communicated  and  seri 
ously  considered,  that  no  thing  be  mistaken,  but  that  history 
may  be  compiled  according  to  truth  with  due  weight,  by 
some  able  and  fit  man  appointed  thereunto."  1 

As  we  follow  these  statements  of  their  anxieties  and  hopes, 
as  these  Puritans  themselves  recount  them,  we  instinctively 
turn  back  to  the  beginnings  of  the  colony,  and  to  those 
pathetic  recitals  of  Dudley  himself  in  the  most  important 
letter  in  early  American  history. 

"  If  any  come  hither  to  plant  for  worldly  ends,  that  can 
live  well  at  home,  he  commits  an  error,  of  which  he  will  soon 
repent  him.  ...  In  a  word  we  have  little  to  be  envied  ;  but 
endure  much  to  be  pitied,  in  the  sickness  and  mortality  of 
our  people."  And  then  says  Mr.  Justice  Story :  "  In  the 
conclusion  of  this  letter,  he  breaks  out  with  the  unconquer 
able  spirit  of  Puritanism.  '  We  are  left,  a  people  poor  and 
contemptible,  yet  such  as  trust  in  God ;  and  are  contented 
with  our  own  condition,  being  well  assured,  that  he  will  not 
fail  us,  nor  forsake  us.' '  Judge  Story  continues,  after  re 
counting  these  words  of  Dudley,  "  Men  who  were  thus  pre 
pared  to  encounter  such  distresses,  were  prepared  for  every 
thing.  The  stake  had  no  terrors  for  them  ;  and  earth  had 
no  rewards  which  could,  for  a  moment,  withdraw  them  from 
the  dictates  of  conscience  and  duty."  He  says  further, 
"They  laid  the  foundations  of  empire  in  these  northern 
regions,  with  slow  and  thoughtful  labor.  Our  reverence  for 
their  services  should  rest,  not  upon  the  fictions  of  fancy,  but 
upon  a  close  survey  of  their  means  and  their  ends,  their 
1  Plymouth  Col.  Rec.,  ix.  82. 


1646]  THE   PURITANS   WERE   CALVINISTS  357 

motives  and  their  lives,  their  characters  and  their  actions. 
And  I  am  much  mistaken,  if  that  close  survey  does  not  in 
vigorate  our  patriotism,  confirm  our  principles,  and  deepen 
and  widen  the  channels  of  our  gratitude."  1 

Our  Puritan  fathers  were  steadfast  Calvinists,  who  are 
finely  described  by  James  Anthony  Froude :  "  These  men 
were  possessed  of  all  the  qualities  which  give  nobility  and 
grandeur  to  human  nature  —  men  whose  life  was  as  upright 
as  their  intellect  was  commanding,  and  their  public  aims 
untainted  with  selfishness ;  unalterably  just  where  duty  re 
quired  them  to  be  stern,  but  with  the  tenderness  of  a  woman 
in  their  hearts ;  frank,  true,  cheerful,  humorous,  as  unlike 
sour  fanatics  as  it  is  possible  to  imagine  any  one,  and  able  in 
some  way  to  sound  the  keynote  to  which  every  brave  and 
faithful  heart  in  Europe  instinctively  vibrated.  This  is  the 
problem,  grapes  do  not  grow  on  bramble-bushes."  2 

The  Court  informs  us  that  "  one  end  in  planting  these 
parts  was  to  propagate  the  true  religion  unto  the  Indians."  3 
This  worthy  object  was  the  cause,  no  doubt,  of  the  following 
statute :  — 

"  It  is  ordered  decreed  by  this  Court,  that  no  Indian  shall 
at  any  time  powwow,  or  perform  outward  worship  to  their 
false  gods,  or  to  the  devil,  in  any  part  of  our  jurisdiction, 
whether  they  be  such  as  dwell  here,  or  shall  come  hither. 
If  any  shall  transgress  this  law,  the  powwower  to  pay  five 
pounds,  the  procurer  five  pounds,  and  every  assistant  coun 
tenancing,  by  his  presence  or  otherwise  (being  of  age  of  dis 
cretion),  twenty  shillings."4 

The  Court  proceeds  next  to  make  a  declaration  more  lib 
eral  and  full  of  soul  liberty  than  they  have  been  represented 
as  having  entertained  :  "  Though  no  human  power  be  Lord 
over  the  faith  and  consciences  of  men,  and  therefore  may 
not  constrain  them  to  believe  or  profess  against  their  con 
science,  yet,  because  such  as  bring  in  damnable  heresies, 

1  Centennial  Discourse,  46,  49. 

2  "  Calvinism,"  in  Short  Studies  on  Great  Subjects,  2d  series,  xiv.  52. 
*  Mass.  Col.  Rec.,  ii.  178.  *  Ib.,  ii.  177. 


358  THOMAS   DUDLEY  [CH.  xxx 

tending  to  the  subversion  of  the  Christian  faith,  and  the 
destruction  of  the  souls  of  men,  ought  duly  to  be  restrained 
from  such  notorious  impiety.  .  .  .  Forasmuch  as  in  these 
countries,  where  the  churches  of  Christ  are  seated,  the  pro 
sperity  of  the  civil  state  is  much  advanced  and  blessed  of  God, 
when  the  ordinances  of  true  religion  and  public  worship  of 
God  do  find  free  passage  in  purity  and  peace,  therefore, 
though  we  do  not  judge  it  meet  to  compel  any  to  enter  into 
the  fellowship  of  the  church,  nor  force  them  to  partake  in 
the  ordinances  peculiar  to  the  church  (which  do  require  vol 
untary  subjection  thereunto),  yet,  seeing  that  the  word  is 
of  general  and  common  behoof  to  all  sorts  of  people,  as 
being  the  ordinary  means  to  subdue  the  hearts  of  hearers, 
not  only  to  the  faith,  and  obedience  to  the  Lord  Jesus,  but 
also  to  civil  obedience,  and  allegiance  unto  magistracy,  and 
to  just  and  honest  conversation  towards  all  men  —  it  was 
ordered,  therefore,  that  all  persons  must  attend  where 
churches  are  established."  1 

There  can  be  no  doubt  that  such  laws  in  this  age  in  any 
civilized  country  would  be  resisted  as  an  invasion  of  the 
domain  of  personal  liberty  and  of  natural,  inalienable  human 
privilege  of  choice  and  conduct.  And  yet  when  we  have 
said  that,  we  feel  somehow  a  deep  sympathy  with  the  fun 
damental  thought  and  purpose  of  these  persons.  We  may 
reject  their  methods,  but  we  should  be  glad  to  see  a  state  in 
this  world  where  religious  principles  with  a  lively  execution 
of  the  golden  rule  dominated  politics ;  and  self-seeking  on  the 
part  of  persons  who  hold  sacred  trusts  of  power  should  never 
be  allowed  to  antagonize  the  public  interest  or  the  welfare  of 
constituents. 

Priestcraft  is  the  worst  element  in  politics,  because  a  wolf 
in  sheep's  clothing  is  a  concealed  peril ;  but  pure  and  unde- 
filed  religion  is  the  tremendous  need  to-day  to  resist  and 
neutralize  political  corruption  everywhere.  For  view  it  as 
we  will,  the  Puritans  were  correct,  that  religion  and  the  state 
are  not  to  be  sundered.  Human  society  itself,  indeed,  is 
1  Mass.  Col.  Rec.,  ii.  177,  178. 


1646]  HARSH   LAWS   AND   CHILDREN  359 

inseparable  from  religion.  The  great  leaders  in  our  national 
struggles  have  been  noble,  godlike,  religious  men,  of  firm 
principle,  founded  on  the  Eternal,  and  the  people  could  and 
did  trust  them,  and  were  not  betrayed  by  greed  or  petty  per 
sonal  ambition,  heedless  of  the  public  welfare.  No  !  religion 
is  the  chief  cornerstone  of  the  state,  and  the  Puritans  knew 
it  as  well  as  we  do,  and  possibly  better.  Their  methods  and 
means  were  somewhat  rigid  and  arbitrary,  but  their  thought 
that  righteousness  exalteth  a  nation  was  essential ;  and 
human  government,  after  ages  of  experience  in  the  devious 
cycles  of  error  and  municipal  corruptions,  will  in  the  end 
find  much  to  admire  in  the  simple  integrity  and  steadfast 
honor  of  these  immortal  founders  of  New  England. 

It  is  certainly  questionable  whether,  of  all  the  harsh  laws 
made  by  these  stern  people,  the  following  does  not  mark, 
with  more  striking  contrast  than  any  other,  the  difference 
between  public  sentiment  then,  respecting  the  relation  of 
parents  to  children,  and  their  bearing  toward  them  now,  in 
this  humane,  submissive,  and  tender  age,  wherein  blooming 
youth  rule  the  court,  the  camp,  almost  from  their  cradle  to 
the  final  demise  of  their  father  and  mother :  — 

"  If  any  child  or  children,  above  sixteen  years  old,  and  of 
sufficient  understanding,  shall  curse  or  smite  their  natural 
father  or  mother,  he  or  she  shall  be  put  to  death."  Unless 
certain  faults  named  were  attached  to  the  parent.  "If  a 
man  have  a  stubborn  or  rebellious  son,  of  sufficient  years 
and  understanding,  namely,  sixteen,  which  will  not  obey  the 
voice  of  his  father  or  the  voice  of  his  mother,  and  that  when 
they  have  chastened  him  will  not  hearken  unto  them,  then 
shall  his  father  and  mother,  being  his  natural  parents,  lay 
hold  on  him,  and  bring  him  to  the  magistrates,  assembled  in 
Court,  and  testify  unto  them,  by  sufficient  evidence,  that 
this  their  son  is  stubborn  and  rebellious,  and  will  not  obey 
their  voice  and  chastisement,  but  lives  in  sundry  notorious 
crimes,  such  a  son  shall  be  put  to  death."1 

The  most  cheerful  feature  about  these  laws  is  that  they 
1  Mass.  Col.  Rec.,  ii.  179,  180. 


360  THOMAS   DUDLEY  [CH.  xxx 

do  not  appear  ever  to  have  been  executed.  The  Puritans 
ran  back  more  than  forty  centuries,  and  made  these  statutes 
the  voice  of  authority  from  the  highest  court,  without  the 
exercise  of  reason  or  human  sympathy. 

We  may,  within  certain  limits,  reverence  that  stoicism 
which,  martyr-like,  discharges  its  duty  utterly  regardless  of 
sentiment  or  affection,  or  indeed  of  consequences,  perform 
ing  the  supposed  will  of  Heaven  as  blind  to  influences  on 
one  side  or  the  other  as  ideal  justice  herself,  but  it  is  diffi 
cult  to  conceive  of  a  parent  so  divested  of  natural  feeling  as 
to  destroy  his  own  offspring,  even  under  the  iron  doctrine 
of  early  Calvinism.  It  is  possible  to  fanaticism,  —  mothers 
cast  their  children  into  the  Ganges,  —  where  right  reason 
and  affection  are  insanely  overthrown.  But  these  people 
were  not  fanatics.  Fortunately  we  do  not  have  to  apologize 
for  the  Puritans  ;  they  were  never  guilty,  as  we  have  ob 
served,  of  the  execution  of  these  cruel  statutes. 

Dudley  had  two  hundred  and  seventy-four  acres  of  land 
laid  out  to  him,  December  25,  1646,  near  Dedham.1 

Winthrop  was  chosen  governor,  Dudley  deputy  governor 
and  commissioner2  of  the  United  Colonies,  May  26,  1647. 
There  was  only  one  new  assistant  elected.  This  election 

1  Mass.  Col.  Rec.,  ii.  184. 

2  Mass.  Archives,  ii.  301.     "At  a  General  Court  holden  at  Boston 
for  the  jurisdiction  of  the  Massachusetts  the  26th  of  the  3  Mo.  1647. 

"  Thomas  Dudley  Esq.  and  John  Endicott  Esq.  were  chosen  Com 
missioners  for  this  Colony  for  a  full  and  complete  year,  as  any  occasion 
or  exigents  may  require,  and  particularly  for  the  next  meeting  at  Boston 
the  26th  of  the  5th  Month  next,  and  were  invested  with  full  power  and 
authority  to  treat  of,  and  conclude  of  all  things  according  to  the  true 
tenor  and  meaning  of  the  Articles  of  Confederation  of  the  United  Col 
onies  of  New  England  concluded  at  Boston  the  I9th  of  the  3  Mo.  1643, 
and  in  case  either  of  them  be  hindered  in  this  business  either  by  sick 
ness,  or  any  other  (the  like)  providence,  that  then  Mr.  Bradstreet  may 
supply  his  place. 

"  By  the  General  Court,  INCREASE  NOWELL,  Sec." 

"  Commonwealth  of  Massachusetts,  Office  of  the  Secretary,  Boston, 
Jan.  28,  1898.  Compared  with  the  original  and  found  correctly  copied. 
WM.  M.  OLIN,  Sec'y." 


1646]  DUDLEY  AND   HOOKER  361 

evidently  gave  great  satisfaction  to  Winthrop,  because  his 
enemies  had  attempted  to  overturn  the  old  government,  and 
signally  failed  to  accomplish  their  purpose.1 

"  An  epidemical  sickness  was  through  the  country  among 
Indians  and  English,  French  and  Dutch."  Forty  or  fifty 
died  in  Massachusetts,  and  nearly  as  many  in  Connecticut. 
"  But  that  which  made  the  stroke  more  sensible  and  griev 
ous,  both  to  them  and  to  all  the  country,  was  the  death  of 
that  faithful  servant  of  the  Lord,  Thomas  Hooker,  pastor  of 
the  church  in  Hartford,  who,  for  piety,  prudence,  wisdom, 
zeal,  learning,  and  what  else  might  make  him  serviceable  in 
the  place  and  time  he  lived  in,  might  be  compared  with  men 
of  greatest  note ;  and  he  shall  need  no  other  praise :  the 
fruits  of  his  labors  in  both  Englands  shall  preserve  an  honor 
able  and  happy  remembrance  of  him  forever."  2 

Hooker  has  always  seemed  nearer  to  Dudley,  for  the  rea 
son  that  he  first  had  his  home  in  America  at  the  house  of 
Dudley  in  Cambridge.  He  and  Dudley  were,  we  think,  more 
or  less  united  in  politics  early  against  Winthrop  and  Cotton. 
Dudley  seems  to  have  been  tempted  to  go  with  Hooker  to 
Connecticut,  but  resisted  and  went  to  Ipswich  because  he 
did  not  care  to  go  so  far,  and  not  long  after  was  so  closely 
united  to  Winthrop  by  the  marriage  of  their  children  and 
otherwise  as  to  be  nevermore  severed  in  politics,  religion, 
friendship,  or  policy.  John  Fiske  says  that  "Mr.  Hooker 
deserves  more  than  any  other  man  to  be  called  the  father  of 
American  democracy."  There  were,  however,  other  progeni 
tors  of  the  American  republic. 

"  In  this  sickness  of  the  governor's  wife  [Mrs.  Winthrop], 
daughter  of  Sir  John  Tindal,  Knight,  left  this  world  for  a 
better,  being  about  fifty-six  years  of  age  :  a  woman  of  singu 
lar  virtue,  prudence,  modesty,  and  piety,  and  especially 

1  Winthrop,  ii.  *3O7- 

2  Ib.,  ii.  *3io.     Rev.  John  Eliot  said,  that  "generally  those  that 
died  were  of  the  choicest  flowers,  and  most  precious  saints.    Among 
others  that  were  then  taken  to  rest  was  that  worthy  and  blessed  light, 
Mr.  Hooker."    (Hist.  Gen.  Rec.,  xxxiii.  238.) 


362  THOMAS   DUDLEY  [CH.  xxx 

beloved  and  honored  of  all  the  country."  l  The  light  thus 
departed  from  the  home  of  Winthrop  never  to  return,  and  in 
a  few  brief  months  he  himself  followed  her.  We  doubt  not 
that  the  charmed  circle  around  the  Winthrop  hearthstone 
often  included  the  social,  warm-hearted,  and  welcome  Gov 
ernor  Dudley  and  his  family  from  Roxbury. 

In  this  sad  bereavement  very  much  had  gone  also  out  of 
Dudley's  life,  and  by  this  shadow  his  own  home  had  been 
forever  darkened.  These  people  must  have  been  endeared 
to  each  other  by  the  vivid  experiences  of  many  eventful 
years,  and  the  loss  of  each  of  the  tried  and  the  true,  in  this 
constantly  contracting  circle,  must  have  been  deeply  felt  by 
the  survivors. 

"  It  is  ordered,  that  ten  pounds  should  be  given  Mr.  Eliot, 
as  a  gratuity  from  this  Court,  in  respect  to  his  great  pains 
and  charge  in  instructing  the  Indians  in  the  knowledge  of 
God,  and  that  order  be  taken  that  the  twenty  pounds  per 
annum,  given  by  the  Lady  Armin  for  that  purpose,  may 
be  called  for  and  employed  accordingly;  and  it  is  desired 
that  some  care  may  be  taken  of  the  Indians  on  the  Lord's 
days."  2 

Winthrop  relates  that  "  mention  was  made  before  of  some 
beginning  to  instruct  the  Indians,  etc.  Mr.  John  Eliot,  teacher 
of  the  church  of  Roxbury,  found  such  encouragement  as  he 
took  great  pains  to  get  their  language,  and  in  a  few  months 
could  speak  of  the  things  of  God  to  their  understanding ; 
and  God  prospered  his  endeavors,  so  as  he  kept  a  constant 
lecture  to  them  in  two  places,  one  week  at  the  wigwam  of 
one  Wabon,  a  new  sachem  near  Watertown  mill,  and  the 
other  the  next  week  in  the  wigwam  of  Cutshamekin,  near 
Dorchester  mill."  3 

Dudley  and  Eliot  were  no  doubt  at  this  time  very  intimate 
and  dear  to  each  other.  We  need  to  keep  in  mind  that  one 
of  the  influences  which  drew  Dudley  to  Roxbury  was  his 

1  Winthrop,  ii.  *3io. 

2  Mass.  Col.  Rec.,  ii.  189. 

3  Winthrop,  ii.  *3O3~*3O5. 


1646]  DUDLEY  AND   REV.  JOHN    ELIOT  363 

wish  to  be  under  the  instruction  of  Eliot,  whom  he  sincerely 
appreciated.  He  had  moved  to  Boston  in  England  for  a 
similar  reason,  that  he  might  be  under  the  ministrations  of 
the  Rev.  John  Cotton  there.  Neither  were  these  the  only 
instances  in  which  he  changed  his  residence  to  bring  himself 
and  family  into  near  touch  with  eminent  scholarly  ministers. 

Cotton  Mather  has  called  attention  to  Dudley's  solicitude 
in  selecting  the  purest,  the  greatest,  and  the  best  teachers ; 
an  evidence,  as  we  have  before  noticed,  of  what  he  himself 
was.  The  dwellings,  families,  and  homes  of  these  two  excel 
lent,  ever-memorable  heroes,  we  have  seen,  were  on  opposite 
sides  of  the  same  street  in  Roxbury,  near  to  the  old  meeting 
house,  the  sacred  temple  where  together  they  worshiped 
God  with  a  reverence,  sincerity,  and  weightiness  of  spirit,  not 
very  much  transcended,  we  suspect,  by  their  more  enlight 
ened,  liberal,  but  sometimes  indifferent  posterity. 

Ellis,  the  historian  of  Roxbury,  evidently  regards  these 
two  men,  rightly  no  doubt,  as  the  most  notable  persons  of 
the  period  in  that  town.  He  cannot  resist  the  temptation 
to  estimate  and  compare  one  with  the  other  over  and  over 
again,  which  we  esteem  a  compliment  to  both  of  these 
worthies.  He  says,  "  Mr.  John  Eliot,  the  next  person  whose 
name  we  meet,  was  the  counterpart  of  Thomas  Dudley."  1 
And  later,  "  How  could  Eliot  be  measured,  for  instance, 
with  Thomas  Dudley  ?  One  was  a  public  man,  loaded  with 
honors,  a  rich  man,  a  zealous  defender  of  the  faith  !  The 
other  went  quietly  to  work,  almost  alone,  spending  all  he 
had,  encountering  danger  and  earning  reproach.  In  their 
characters  all  is  contrasted.  One  was  a  man  of  the  world. 
The  other  was  spiritual,  living  out  what  he  used  to  say, 
'Heaven  is  here.'  "2 

We  are  not  quite  prepared  to  accept  the  candid  judgment 
of  Ellis  here.  We  fear  that  he  holds  the  balances  of  the 
sanctuary  with  a  strong  bias  towards  the  gentle,  loving  John, 
the  apostle  to  the  Indians,  and  may  not  quite  appreciate  the 
soldier,  jurist,  statesman,  —  that  strong  soul  who  had  also 
1  Hist.  Roxbury,  104.  2  Ib.,  117. 


364  THOMAS   DUDLEY  [CH.  xxx 

risked  all  things,  suffered  all  things,  and  fought  a  good  fight 
and  kept  the  faith,  laid  the  foundation  of  a  free  state  in 
the  wilderness,  with  the  help  of  others,  and  worshiped  God 
always  with  a  pure  heart  and  a  willing  mind. 

Men  often  think  that  gentle,  inoffensive,  lamb-like  per 
sons,  whose  daily  lives  and  conduct  reveal  only  sweetness 
and  light,  are  nearer  to  the  kingdom  of  heaven  and  the 
pattern  of  the  Master,  than  the  more  rugged  heroes  like 
Luther,  Cromwell,  and  Dudley,  who,  as  valiant  soldiers, 
without  hesitation,  take  a  share  in  the  conflicts  of  this  world, 
full  of  zeal  for  the  good,  and  righteous  indignation  towards 
wrong  and  oppression  everywhere.  Is  it  not  possible  that 
in  the  sight  of  Heaven  both  may  be  equally  justified  ?  Were 
they  not  each  faithful  stewards  of  the  manifold  grace  of 
God,  whose  life  works  were  severally  set  apart  and  accept 
ably  performed  ? 

May  not  the  contrite  delver  and  ditcher  serve  in  the  busy 
hive  of  this  world  as  truly  as  the  saint  who  ministers  at 
altars  and  darkens  arch  or  aisle  or  cornice  with  clouds  of 
incense?  Priests,  ministers,  and  sacred  teachers  are  not 
the  only  approved  servants  of  God.  It  is  they  "  who  love 
their  fellow-men  "  who  demonstrate  that  they  first  loved 
God. 

The  Court,  in  common  with  other  Protestant  powers,  took 
alarm  at  the  progress  of  the  Jesuits,  and  constructed  a  stat 
ute  to  exclude  them  :  "  This  Court  taking  into  consideration 
the  great  wars,  combustions,  and  divisions  which  are  this 
day  in  Europe,  and  that  the  same  are  observed  to  be  chiefly 
raised  and  fomented  by  the  secret  underminings  and  solici 
tations  of  those  of  the  Jesuitical  order,  men  brought  up  and 
devoted  to  the  religion  and  court  of  Rome,  which  has  occa 
sioned  divers  states  to  expel  them  from  their  territories." 
They  thence  make  a  law  that  they  shall  not  be  allowed  to 
reside  in  their  jurisdiction. 

Persons  who  condemn  the  Court  of  Massachusetts  with 
great  vigor  for  excluding  Antinomians  and  other  religious 
and  political  agitators  because  they  deemed  them  dangerous 


1646]  ASSEMBLY  AT   CAMBRIDGE  365 

to  the  state,  or  enemies  to  good  government,  have  no  words 
of  censure  for  this  statute.  Here  was  a  bird  of  a  different 
feather,  who  made  even  Roger  Williams  quail  in  spirit  and 
speech.  But  fortunately  he  was  never  in  his  day  required 
to  test  the  strength  of  "  soul  liberty  "  to  any  extent  by 
fostering  Jesuits.  He  did  not  write  sweetly  about  them  or 
seem  to  admire  them. 

The  Court,  out  of  the  goodness  of  its  heart,  remembered 
the  spiritual  fathers  who  were  at  Cambridge,  puzzled  and 
perplexed  in  constructing  a  platform  of  Doctrine  to  avoid 
the  errors  of  Westminster,  and  retain  the  essentials  of  sound 
doctrine. 

"  The  Court  think  it  convenient  that  order  be  given  to 
the  auditor  to  send  twelve  gallons  of  sack  and  six  gallons 
of  white  wine,  as  a  small  testimony  of  the  Court's  respect, 
to  the  reverend  assembly  of  elders  at  Cambridge." l 

The  Court  recognized  the  justice  at  last  of  allowing  per 
sons  not  church  members,  and  therefore  not  freemen,  to  sit 
on  juries,  hold  minor  town  offices,  and  vote  within  certain 
limits  for  selectmen  and  on  assessment,  since  they  were  sub 
ject  to  the  laws  equally  with  the  freemen,  and  had  a  chronic 
grievance  respecting  their  rights  and  powers.  This  action 
was  certainly  wise  and  prudent,  a  step  forward  towards  uni 
versal  American  citizenship.2 

1  Mass.  Col.  Rec.,  ii.  194,  195.          2  Ib.,  ii.  197. 


CHAPTER    XXXI 

THE  General  Court  extended  a  helping  hand  to  Harvard 
College  in  1647,  by  assisting  it  to  receive  money  due  to  it, 
and  to  secure  its  financial  stability. 

It  assisted  the  medical  school,  in  a  way  which  has  been 
imitated  in  many  States  recently,  and  which  seems  not  only 
to  have  aided  science  but  to  have  prevented  crime.  "  We 
conceive  it  very  necessary  that  such  as  study  physic  or 
surgery  may  have  liberty  to  read  anatomy,  and  to  anatomize 
once  in  four  years  some  malefactor,  in  case  there  be  such  as 
the  Court  may  allow  of."  l 

But  the  system  of  public  instruction  which  included  then 
and  now  all  the  children  of  the  commonwealth,  instituted  by 
law  in  1647,  nas  reflected  greater  glory  upon  the  founders, 
and  done  more  to  exalt  the  dignity  and  character  of  Massa 
chusetts  and  secure  her  lasting  prosperity,  than  any  other 
fact  in  her  history.  Palfrey  has  finely  said,  "  Not  a  word  of 
such  legislation  as  the  following  must  be  withheld  from  the 
reader.  Since  the  seventeenth  year  of  Massachusetts,  no 
child  of  hers  has  been  able  to  say,  that  to  him  poverty  has 
closed  the  book  of  knowledge  or  the  way  to  honor." 

"  It  being  one  chief  project  of  that  old  deluder,  Satan,  to 
keep  men  from  the  knowledge  of  the  Scriptures  as  in  former 
times  by  keeping  them  in  an  unknown  tongue,  so  in  these 
latter  times  by  persuading  from  the  use  of  tongues,  that  so 
at  least  the  true  sense  and  meaning  of  the  original  might  be 
clouded  by  false  glosses  of  saint-seeming  deceivers,  —  that 
learning  may  not  be  buried  in  the  grave  of  our  fathers  in 
the  church  and  common weath,  the  Lord  assisting  our  en 
deavors,  — 

1  Mass.  Col.  Rec.,  ii.  201. 


1647]     PUBLIC   EDUCATION    IN    MASSACHUSETTS         367 

"It  is  therefore  ordered,  that  every  township  in  this  juris 
diction,  after  the  Lord  hath  increased  them  to  the  number 
of  fifty  householders,  shall  then  forthwith  appoint  one  within 
their  town  to  teach  all  such  children  as  shall  resort  to  him, 
to  write  and  read,  whose  wages  shall  be  paid  either  by  the 
parents  or  masters  of  such  children,  or  by  the  inhabitants  in 
general,  by  way  of  supply,  as  the  major  part  of  those  that 
order  the  prudentials  of  the  town  shall  appoint;  provided 
these  that  send  their  children  be  not  oppressed  by  paying 
much  more  than  they  can  have  them  taught  for  in  other 
towns ;  and  it  is  further  ordered,  that  where  any  town  shall 
increase  to  the  number  of  one  hundred  families  or  house 
holders,  they  shall  set  up  a  grammar  school  [where  Greek 
and  Latin  were  taught],  the  master  thereof  being  able  to 
instruct  youth  so  far  as  they  may  be  fitted  for  the  university, 
provided,  if  any  town  neglect  the  performance  hereof  above 
one  year,  that  every  such  town  shall  pay  five  pounds  to  the 
next  school  till  they  shall  perform  this  order."  l 

Moses  Coit  Tyler  has  said  that  "probably  no  other  com 
munity  of  pioneers  ever  so  honored  study,  so  reverenced  the 
symbols  and  instruments  of  learning.  Theirs  was  a  social 
structure  with  its  cornerstone  resting  on  a  book.  Universal 
education  seemed  to  them  to  be  a  universal  necessity."2 

"  Is  there,"  said  Rufus  Choate,  "a  surer  way  of  achieving 
the  boast  of  Themistocles  that  he  knew  how  to  make  a  small 
state  a  great  one,  than  by  making  it  wise,  bright,  knowing, 
apprehensive,  quick-witted,  ingenious,  thoughtful." 

These  wonderful  people,  whose  foresight  penetrated  to 
far-off  consequences,  embarked  upon  this  enterprise  while 
they  were  yet  poor,  unprotected,  persecuted  at  home  and 
abroad,  and  in  peril  on  every  hand. 

We  extol  the  philanthropy  and  eminent  public  services  of 
individuals  who  endow  schools  and  colleges ;  we  recognize 
them  as  instinct  with  a  deep  love  of  their  fellow-men,  of 
other  generations  also,  for  this  work  is  lasting  ;  but  here,  not 
upon  a  foundation  of  charity,  but  as  a  municipal  obligation, 
1  Mass.  Col.  Rec.,  ii.  203.  2  Hist.  Amer.  Lit.,  i.  99. 


368  THOMAS   DUDLEY  [CH.  xxxi 

the  state  or  the  town  makes  a  grant  tendering  to  all  its  youth 
freely,  without  money  and  without  price,  the  living  waters  of 
learning,  not  for  one  day,  but  forever.  It  is  not  strange  that 
this  act  has  elicited  the  admiration  of  the  world. 

The  following  words  of  Lord  Macaulay,  in  the  House  of 
Commons  in  1847,  just  two  centuries  after  this  act  became  a 
law,  commended  it  in  burning  words  which  ought  to  be  dear 
to  every  American,  because  they  are  so  true,  so  beautiful, 
and  so  just  to  the  memory  of  those  brave,  unselfish  pioneers 
and  their  work.  Consider  for  one  moment,  the  orator,  the 
place,  the  occasion. 

"  I  say  therefore,  that  the  education  of  the  people  ought 
to  be  the  first  concern  of  a  state.  .  .  .  This  is  my  deliberate 
conviction  ;  and  in  this  opinion  I  am  fortified  by  thinking 
that  it  is  also  the  opinion  of  all  the  great  legislators,  of  all 
the  great  statesmen,  of  all  the  great  political  philosophers,  of 
all  ages  and  of  all  nations.  .  .  .  Sir,  it  is  the  opinion  of  all 
the  greatest  champions  of  civil  and  religious  liberty  in  the 
Old  World  and  in  the  New ;  and  of  none  —  I  hesitate  not  to 
say  it  —  more  emphatically  than  of  those  whose  names  are 
held  in  the  highest  estimation  by  the  Protestant  Noncon 
formists  of  England. 

"  Assuredly,  if  there  be  any  class  of  men  whom  the  Pro 
testant  Nonconformists  of  England  respect  more  highly  than 
another,  —  if  any  whose  memory  they  hold  in  deeper  ven 
eration,  —  it  is  that  class  of  men,  of  high  spirit  and  uncon 
querable  principles,  who,  in  the  days  of  Archbishop  Laud, 
preferred  leaving  their  native  country,  and  living  in  the  sav 
age  solitudes  of  a  wilderness,  rather  than  to  live  in  a  land 
of  prosperity  and  plenty,  where  they  could  not  enjoy  the 
privilege  of  worshiping  their  Maker  freely,  according  to  the 
dictates  of  their  conscience.  Those  men,  illustrious  forever 
in  history,  were  the  founders  of  the  Commonwealth  of  Mas 
sachusetts  ;  but  though  their  love  of  freedom  of  conscience 
was  illimitable  and  indestructible,  they  could  see  nothing 
servile  or  degrading  in  the  principle  that  the  state  should 
take  upon  itself  the  charge  of  the  education  of  the  people. 


1 647]     PUBLIC   EDUCATION    IN   MASSACHUSETTS         369 

"  In  the  year  1647  they  passed  their  first  legislative  enact 
ment  on  this  subject;  in  the  preamble  of  which  they  dis 
tinctly  pledged  themselves  to  this  principle,  that  education 
was  a  matter  of  the  deepest  possible  importance  and  the 
greatest  possible  interest  to  all  nations  and  to  all  communi 
ties  ;  and  that,  as  such,  it  was,  in  an  eminent  degree  deserv 
ing  of  the  peculiar  attention  of  the  State."  l 

James  Russell  Lowell  has  contributed  his  estimate  of  this 
foundation  structure  of  the  fathers  :  — 

"  But  it  was  in  making  education  not  only  common  to  all, 
but  in  some  sense  compulsory  on  all,  that  the  destiny  of  the 
free  republics  of  America  was  practically  settled.  Every 
man  was  to  be  trained,  not  only  to  the  use  of  arms,  but  of 
his  wits  also ;  and  it  is  these  which  alone  make  the  others 
effective  weapons  for  the  maintenance  of  freedom.  ...  It  is 
quite  true  that  our  Republic  is  the  heir  of  the  English  Com 
monwealth  ;  but  as  we  trace  events  backward  to  their  causes, 
we  shall  find  it  trua^also,  that  what  made  our  Revolution  a 
foregone  conclusiofKwas  that  act  of  the  General  Court, 
passed  in  May,  1647,  which  established  the  system  of  com 
mon  schools."2 

Douglas  Campbell  assures  us  that  "rejuvenated  England 
has  followed  America  in  her  system  of  popular  education, 
freedom  of  religion,  freedom  of  the  press,  the  secret  ballot, 
prison  reform,  and  the  entire  reformation  of  her  legal  sys 
tem."  3  But  he  evidently  thinks  that  we  did  not  invent ;  that 
our  ancestors  only  discovered  all  things  in  the  Netherlands. 
There  is,  however,  not  much  new  under  the  sun.  We  owe 
very  much  to  Holland,  it  is  certain ;  she  in  turn  received 
light  from  Athens,  Jerusalem,  Rome,  from  the  masterly  edu 
cational  services  of  the  Saracens  in  the  Middle  Ages ;  and 
Germany,  before  the  Thirty  Years'  War,  was  leading  the 
world  in  scholarship,  as  she  has  been  in  recent  times. 

We  are  "  the  heir  of  all  the  ages,  in  the  foremost  files  of 

1  Macaulay's  Speeches,  ii.  334,  335,  Redfield's  ed. 

2  Among  My  Books,  i.  239-242. 

3  The  Puritan  in  Holland,  England,  and  America,  ii.  404,  410-414. 


370  THOMAS   DUDLEY  [CH.  xxxi 

time."  Our  fathers  had  the  wisdom  and  discretion  to  take, 
as  bees  select  their  honeyed  sweets,  from  sources  many, 
strange,  and  curious,  but  they  always  secured  the  useful,  life- 
saving,  life-sustaining  thing  for  their  hives. 

Nothing  can  detract  from  the  honor  of  this  great  service 
to  mankind,  rendered  now  and  here  by  these  wise  master- 
builders.  They  who  have  thrown  light  upon  the  path  of 
men,  and  have  so  secured  the  vital  oil  to  their  lamp  that  its 
flame  shall  never  be  extinguished,  have  earned  and  shall  re 
ceive  the  praises  of  all  time. 

We  ought  not  to  take  our  leave  of  the  subject  of  educa 
tion  without  averting  at  least  to  the  provision  made  by  the 
Court  in  1642  that  children  shall  have  trades  and  education 
in  business,  and  be  brought ,  up  with  an  occupation  ;  if  neg 
lected  by  parents  and  guardians,  then  it  was  the  duty  of  the 
selectmen  of  the  town  to  see  to  the  training  in  industry  of 
the  refuse  and  waste  of  society.1 

This  was  a  simple  and  very  efficient  way  to  accustom  all 
citizens  to  labor ;  to  give  to  every  one  a  trade  or  occupation ; 
to  reduce  the  number  of  the  unemployed,  aho  the  amount 
of  vice  and  crime  born  of  ignorance  and  still  more  of  idle 
ness.  We  in  this  day  are  slowly  coming  to  understand  that 
training  of  the  eye,  the  hand,  the  judgment,  in  mechanic  arts, 
in  handicrafts,  is  for  the  larger  portion  of  the  community  the 
most  important  education  next  to  morals,  while  skill  in  agri 
culture  and  in  the  rotation  of  crops  and  qualities  of  soil  and 
their  needs  calls  for  special  training.  And  yet  again,  schools 
in  textiles  and  dyeing  and  the  various  arts  of  manufacture 
are  demanded,  for  the  age  of  apprentices  is  at  an  end. 

Here  again  the  practical  wisdom,  thrift,  and  business  capa 
city  of  these  men  were  manifested.  They  were  determined 
to  have  no  drones  in  their  hive,  no  tramps  in  their  streets, 
no  poor  on  the  towns. 

Care  was  taken  by  the  Court  respecting  the  boundary 
lines  of  private  estates  and  also  of  the  towns.  The  subject 
of  weights  and  measures  was  also  under  consideration,  and 
1  Mass.  Col.  Rec.,  ii.  6,  7. 


1647]         BEGINNING   OF   THE   STATE    LIBRARY  371 

provision  made  to  secure  uniform  and  accurate  standards  in 
both. 

Burglars  received  attention  in  the  following  statute: 
•"Whereas  no  provision  hath  hitherto  been  made  against 
burglary,  and  other  violent  assaults  against  men's  persons 
and  goods,  the  want  whereof  may  -expose  many,  especially 
travellers  and  inland  inhabitants,  both  by  day  and  night,  to 
the  rage  and  cruelty  of  men  of  Belial,  whether  Indians  or 
others,  for  self-defense  he  is  justified  in  destroying  them, 
and  shall  be  holden  blameless."  l 

The  General  Court,  with  its  committees,  was  making 
deliberate  preparation  for  a  very  correct  compilation  of  colo 
nial  laws,  which  was  published  in  1649,  and  for  that  reason, 
among  others,  they  sought  the  great  authorities  in  the  Eng 
lish  common  law.  "  It  is  agreed  by  the  Court,  to  the  end 
we  may  have  the  better  light  for  making  and  proceeding 
about  laws,  that  there  shall  be  these  books  following  pro 
cured  for  the  use  of  the  Court  from  time  to  time  :  Two 
of  Sir  Edward  Coke  upon  Littleton ;  two  of  the  books  of 
Entries ;  two  of  Sir  Edward  Coke  upon  Magna  Charta ;  two 
of  the  New  Terms  of  the  Law;  two  Dalton's  Justice  of 
Peace  ;  two  of  Sir  Edward  Coke's  Reports."  2 

These  books  are  said  to  have  been  the  beginning  of  the 
state  library  in  the  State  House  in  Boston. 

A  little  reflection  upon  the  industry  and  efforts  of  the 
colonists  in  making  laws,  importing  law  books,  and  provid 
ing  intellectual  and  industrial  education  for  the  whole  people, 
together  with  moral  and  religious  instruction,  will  lead  our 
attention  naturally  to  the  remarkable  manner  in  which  Sir 
William  Jones  gathered  it  all  up  in  his  replete  and  vigorous 
lines,  full  to  the  brim  with  suggestion :  — 

"  What  constitutes  a  state  ? 


Men  who  their  duties  know, 

But  know  their  rights,  and  knowing,  dare  maintain, 
Prevent  the  long-aimed  blow, 

1  Mass.  Col.  Rec.,  ii.  210-212.  *  Ib.,  ii.  212. 


372  THOMAS   DUDLEY  [CH.  xxxi 

And  crush  the  tyrant  while  they  rend  the  chain ; 

These  constitute  a  state  ; 
And  sovereign  law,  that  state's  collected  will, 

O'er  thrones  and  globes  elate 
Sits  empress,  crowning  good,  repressing  ill." 

They  order,  in  November,  1647,  that  hereafter  in  each 
succeeding  year  the  towns  shall,  at  an  annual  town  meeting 
in  the  Fifth  Month,  choose  a  commissioner,  who,  with  the 
selectmen,  shall  constitute  a  board  of  assessors,  whose  duty 
it  shall  be  to  estimate  the  true  valuation  of  all  real  and 
personal  estates  for  the  purpose  of  assessing  the  taxes,  and 
thereupon  to  make  such  assessment  according  to  law. 

The  prices  of  corn,  for  the  rate  to  be  gathered,  are  ordered 
by  the  Court  to  be  :  wheat,  four  shillings  and  sixpence ;  bar 
ley,  four  shillings ;  rye  and  peas,  three  shillings  and  six 
pence  ;  Indian,  three  shillings  per  bushel.1 

The  Court  is  troubled  to  furnish  ways  and  means  to 
support  Governor  Winslow,  its  "honored  and  industrious" 
agent,  in  England.2 

It  also  ordered  leather  guns  from  England,  "found  to 
answer,"  in  I7/8.3 

The  Court  ordered  that  ballots  thereafter  at  elections 
should  be  of  beans,  with  the  same  purpose  of  the  Australian 
ballots,  and  by  various  devices  they  tried  to  secure  more 
perfect  protection  to  the  secret  choice  and  purpose  of  the 
independent  voter. 

How  many  of  the  practical  questions  in  every  day's  expe 
rience  came  before  them  for  judgment  and  action  ! 

It  was  ordered  that  all  magistrates,  deputies,  officers  of 
the  Court,  elders  and  deacons,  the  president,  fellows,  stu 
dents,  and  officers  of  Harvard  College,  and  others,  shall  be 
exempt  from  trainings,  and  night  and  day  watching  and 
warding. 

The  provision  for  giving  alarm  at  the  approach  of  an 
enemy,  night  or  day,  is  so  complete  and  particular  that  it 

1  Mass.  Col.  Rec.,  ii.  213,  215.  2  Ib.,  ii.  218. 

8  Hayden's  Diet,  of  Dates  (Leather). 


1647]  MASSACHUSETTS   TOOK  THE   LEAD  373 

gives  a  vivid  idea  of  the  peril  and  exposure  on  every  hand 
of  these  feebly  protected  people,  who,  with  unsurpassed 
bravery,  consummate  wisdom,  and  unshaken  faith  in  the 
divine  oracles  of  God,  were  fashioning  a  free  government  for 
a  free  people.1 

There  were,  at  the  end  of  1647,  thirty-three  settled  towns 
in  Massachusetts.  This  does  not  include  Plymouth,  not  yet 
annexed.  Every  other  colony  in  New  England  was  only 
an  incident,  compared  with  the  growth  and  progress  here. 
Massachusetts  led  from  the  start  in  development,  in  educa 
tion,  among  the  United  Colonies,  in  the  Revolution,  in  the 
Civil  War,  and  still  leads  in  extent  of  noble  charities  and 
advanced  legislation ;  and  in  a  natural,  well-earned  self- 
importance  manifests  even  in  her  sons  and  daughters  of 
this  generation  a  feeling  of  superiority. 

Dudley  was  one  of  the  commissioners  of  the  United  Colo 
nies  and  president  of  the  confederacy  this  year,  although 
Endicott  was  his  colleague.  It  seems  quite  certain,  until 
age  had  impaired  Dudley's  efficiency,  that  he  outranked 
Endicott  in  importance  in  the  General  Court  and  in  the 
councils  of  the  United  Colonies.  Endicott  seems  to  follow 
next. 

Palfrey  says  :  "  The  confederacy  of  the  four  colonies  was 
an  humble  but  substantial  power  in  the  world.  It  was 
known  to  be  such  by  its  French,  Dutch,  and  savage  neigh 
bors  ;  by  the  alienated  communities  on  Narragansett  Bay ; 
and  by  the  rulers  of  the  mother  country."  2 

It  was  in  this  year  1647,  on  the  29tn  of  May,  that  Gov 
ernor  Peter  Stuyvesant,  the  last  of  the  Dutch  governors  of 
New  Netherland,  succeeded  the  former  Governor  Kieft. 
He  has  been  so  facetiously  set  forth  by  Washington  Irving 
in  his  "  History  of  New  York,"  that  the  really  strong  quali 
ties  of  his  character  have  sustained  a  loss  at  the  hands  of 
this  genial  master  of  humor;  as  the  profession  of  school 
teacher  will  not  in  years  escape  from  the  influence  of  the 

1  Mass.  Col.  Rec.,  ii.  223. 

2  Palfrey,  ii.  271,  272. 


374  THOMAS   DUDLEY  [CH.  xxxi 

simple,  witless  Ichabod  Crane,  a  product  of  the  same  match 
less,  kindly  wit. 

The  commissioners  of  the  United  Colonies,  Dudley  being 
their  president,  at  once  paid  their  respects  to  Governor 
Stuyvesant,  with  congratulations  upon  his  accession  to  office, 
not  forgetting  to  mention  certain  grievances  and  injuries 
inflicted  on  them  by  his  unscrupulous  predecessor,  such  as 
confiscation  of  English  vessels  under  false  pretenses  of 
revenue  charges,  finally  giving  a  relish  to  their  diplomacy 
by  suggesting  that  they  hoped  to  obtain  from  him  full  in 
demnification  for  their  past  misfortunes  at  the  hands  of  his 
people. 

Governor  Stuyvesant  was  easily  convinced  of  the  faults  of 
the  former  administration,  but  instead  of  consenting  to  any 
indemnity  or  restitution,  made  a  counter-demand  for  the 
restoration  of  portions  of  Connecticut  and  New  Haven, 
which  he  said  the  English  had  unjustly  wrested  from  the 
Dutch.  Soon  after  this  a  short-lived  treaty  was  concluded 
between  them  and  the  council.  Trouble  was,  however,  soon 
fomented  again,  and  continued  until,  in  1664,  Governor 
Stuyvesant  surrendered  with  tact  and  wisdom  to  an  over 
powering  British  force,  without  bloodshed,  and  New  Nether- 
land  henceforth  became  New  York,  some  day  not  far  off  to 
be  the  metropolis  of  the  world.  x 

Winthrop  was  chosen  governor,  and  Dudley  deputy  gov 
ernor,  in  May,  1648,  and  Dudley  was  also  chosen  substitute 
commissioner  of  the  United  Colonies.  This  proved  to  be 
the  last  year  of  Governor  Winthrop' s  official  life.  He  lived 
until  March,  1649,  but  not  until  another  election  of  governor, 
which  was  in  the  following  May.  Dudley  was,  we  suppose, 
acting  governor  from  the  demise  of  Winthrop,  on  the  26th 
of  March,  until  the  2d  of  May,  one  month  and  six  days. 

The  permit  of  the  Court  was  reluctantly  granted  to  Samuel 
Gorton  to  pass  through  Massachusetts,  upon  the  request  of 
the  Earl  of  Warwick.  This  license  was  clothed  in  such  care 
fully  guarded  words,  and  was  so  instinct  with  disdain  towards 
him,  and  chagrin  and  humiliation  in  the  submission  of  the 


1 647]         POWERS   OF   THE   UNITED   COLONIES  375 

Court  to  a  requisition  which  it  did  not  feel  at  liberty  to  with 
stand,  that  we  cannot  avoid  quoting  it  in  full :  — 

"  The  Court  did  consent  that  Samuel  Gorton,  now  on  ship 
board,  upon  the  request  of  the  Earl  of  Warwick,  hath  one 
full  week  after  the  date  hereof  allowed  him,  for  the  transpor 
tation  of  himself  and  his  goods,  through  our  jurisdiction,  to 
the  place  of  his  dwelling,  he  demeaning  himself  inoffensively, 
according  to  the  contents  of  the  said  earl's  letter ;  and  that 
the  marshal,  or  some  other,  be  appointed  to  show  him  a 
copy  of  this  order,  or  to  fix  it  to  the  mainmast  of  the  ship 
in  which  he  is."  1 

The  Court,  in  May,  1648,  appointed  a  committee  of  ten, 
with  Winthrop  and  Dudley  at*  the  head  of  it,  "  to  peruse  the 
Articles  of  our  Confederation  with  the  United  Colonies,  as 
also  the  acts  that  have  passed  the  commissioners,  which  may 
seem  either  to  confound  the  power  of  our  General  Court  or 
so  interfere  with  it,  as  may  in  a  short  time  prove  not  only 
prejudicial  but  exceedingly  uncomfortable."2 

This  committee  suggested  that  the  powers  of  the  United 
Colonies  should  not  "  extend  to  limit  or  interrupt  the  civil 
government  or  church  affairs  within  any  of  the  colonies." 
They  raised  questions  about  having  meetings  less  often. 
And  since  Massachusetts  bore  five  times  the  expenses  that 
any  other  colony  did,  could  she  not  have  three  commis 
sioners  and  the  others  two  each  ?  It  proceeds  to  say  that 
certain  decisions  of  the  commissioners  are  not  mandatory 
but  only  advisory ;  this  last  and  only  essential  point  to  be 
directed  at  a  claim  of  right  on  the  part  of  Connecticut  to 
collect  imposts  from  Massachusetts  people  who  dwelt  upon 
the  banks  of  the  Connecticut  River,  at  Springfield,  Mass., 
and  in  the  adjacent  country,  including  Westfield  and  other 
towns,  such  toll  to  be  taken  at  the  mouth  of  the  river,  to 
construct  or  repair  the  fort  at  Saybrook,  or  to  pay  Mr.  Fen- 
wick  the  cost  price  of  the  estate. 

Massachusetts  had  already  submitted  this  question  to  the 
commissioners,  and  it  had  been  before  them  and  argued  over 
1  Mass.  Col.  Rec.,  ii.  242,  2^3.  2  Ib.,  ii.  245. 


376  THOMAS   DUDLEY  [CH.  xxxi 

and  over,  from  1645  to  1648;  and  Massachusetts,  or  her  citi 
zens,  had  finally  been  directed  to  pay  said  duties  assessed 
at  Saybrook  upon  merchandise  coming  down  the  river  from 
Massachusetts.  It  now  wished  the  judgment  understood  as 
advisory,  not  mandatory.  Here  at  the  very  start  these  peo 
ple,  who  were  working  away  at  the  foundation  of  things,  had 
to  meet  a  question  that  has  since  attracted  the  attention  of 
diplomatists  throughout  the  commercial  world ;  and  although 
many  opinions  have  been  expressed,  and  many  arguments 
made  on  both  sides,  the  balance  of  authority  seems  to  incline 
towards  the  right  of  a  state  at  the  mouth  of  a  river  to  dic 
tate  terms  and  collect  duties,  unless  that  right  has  been 
extinguished  by  treaty  provisions. 

The  first  river  to  be  set  free  was  the  Rhine,  on  the  de 
mand  of  the  French,  in  1804,  more  than  a  century  and  a 
half  after  this  question  was  raised  on  the  Connecticut.  In 
1880  the  Elbe  and  the  Rhine  were  again  restricted,  and 
vessels  must  present  themselves  at  the  custom-house  on 
each  frontier.  The  great  rivers  have  all  been  subjects  of 
treaty  in  this  respect,  —  the  Danube,  the  Scheldt,  the  Ama 
zon,  the  La  Plata,  the  Mississippi,  the  Rio  Grande,  the  St. 
Lawrence,  the  three  great  rivers  of  Alaska,  and  the  Congo 
and  Niger.  This  has  all  transpired  during  this  century. 
Thus  enlightened  policy  —  not  obedience  to  law,  but  the 
general  good  of  mankind  —  has  in  a  great  measure  created 
treaties  and  set  the  rivers  free  from  tolls  and  exactions. 
The  demands  of  an  ever-widening  commerce  will  at  length 
set  the  great  highways  to  the  sea  as  free  and  chainless  as 
the  ocean  itself ;  then  Massachusetts  will  be  vindicated.1 

It  ought  not  to  escape  our  notice  that  an  early  contention 
had  existed  between  Massachusetts  and  Connecticut  as  to 
whether  Springfield  and  Westfield  were  in  one  colony  or  the 
other,  in  whkh  controversy  the  commissioners  decided  in 
favor  of  Massachusetts.  This  may  have  added  energy  to 
the  action  of  Connecticut.  The  colony  had  purchased  the 

1  Internal.  Law,  W.  E.  Hall,  116-125  ;  Internat.  Law,  Woolsey,  79- 
83;  Wheaton,  ii.  4,  §  15. 


1647]  BOUNDARY   DISPUTES  377 

land  about  the  mouth  of  the  Connecticut  of  George  Fen- 
wick  in  1644,  and  the  colony  of  Connecticut  claimed  under 
him. 

But  Massachusetts  had  contended  earlier  with  Fenwick 
about  this  title  and  boundary.  "  Mr.  Fenwick  desired  in 
1643,  that  if  he  did  not  prove,  and  make  it  appear  to  the 
commissioners  at  the  next  meeting,  that  his  line,  by  an 
anciehter  patent  than  ours,  and  an  authentic  one,  doth  take 
in  Wooronock  [Westfield],  then  our  line  to  stand,  and  that 
trading  house  to  be  subject  to  our  orders."  l 

We  find  the  following  in  a  letter  from  Fenwick  to  Gov 
ernor  Winthrop,  October,  1639  :  "  For  other  matters,  as  they 
are  of  great  consequence  and  near  concernment  to  others  as 
well  as  myself,  I  can  at  present  say  thus  much  duly,  that  if 
there  be  anything  betwixt  you  and  the  towns  above,  about 
bounds,  whatsoever  is  concluded  without  us  here,  I  shall 
account  invalid  and  must  protest  against  it.  I  speak  not 
this  out  of  any  fear  either  of  wrong  or  neglect  from  you  or 
them,  but  to  tell  you  in  short  (having  many  other  business) 
what  I  hold  myself  bound  to  do  in  that  particular,  and  when 
there  shall  be  a  fit  time  for  anything  betwixt  us  you  shall 
find  us  in  all  things  to  submit  to  right  and  good  con 
science."  2 

It  is  evident  from  the  Mass.  Col.  Rec.,  ii.  264,  268,  that 
this  question  of  boundary  lines  was  unsettled  in  1649,  taat 
Fenwick  failed  to  send  any  one  to  join  Massachusetts  in 
running  the  south  line,  and  that  the  commissioners,  assum 
ing  the  Massachusetts  line  to  be  the  correct  one,  awarded 
Westfield  and  Springfield  to  them. 

We  have  entered  more  carefully  into  this  question  because 
we  find  in  Mass.  Col.  Rec.,  i.  319,  the  following:  "Mr. 
Dudley  was  entreated  to  answer  Mr.  Fen  wick's  letter,  ac 
cording  to  the  directions  indorsed."  We  had,  until  the 
present  time,  no  means  of  knowing  the  subject-matter  of 
this  letter,  but  recently  we  have  learned,  as  will  appear  else- 

1  Mass.  Col.  Rec.,  ii.  44. 

2  Hutchinson  Papers,  published  by  the  Prince  Society,  i.  121. 


378  THOMAS   DUDLEY  [CH.  xxxi 

where,1  that  the  general  course  of  controversy  between  Fen- 
wick  and  Massachusetts  was  agitated,  and  that  Dudley  was 
directed  to  set  forth  in  the  said  answer  the  definite  opinions 
of  the  Court  respecting  the  southern  boundary  line  of  Mas 
sachusetts,  including  Springfield,  within  the  colony. 

The  immediate  connection  of  Dudley  with  this  affair  will 
be  apparent,  if  we  consider  that  he  was  governor  of  the 
colony  in  1640  and  1645,  that  he  was  commissioner  in  1643, 
and  president  of  the  confederacy  in  1647,  and  a  prominent 
member  of  the  present  committee  of  1648,  during  all  which 
time  this  matter  of  boundary  and  right  of  free  passage 
through  the  Connecticut  River  to  the  sea  was  under  con 
sideration. 

There  seems  to  have  been  immediate  connection  between 
the  above  question  of  boundary  and  the  following  one  of 
the  jurisdiction  of  Massachusetts  over  Indians  in  the  neigh 
borhood  of  Springfield.  William  Pynchon,  at  Springfield,  had 
written  a  letter  dated  the  5th  of  Fifth  Month,  1648,  to  Dud 
ley,  the  purport  of  which  was  that  certain  murders  in  his 
neighborhood,  committed  by  the  Indians,  were  probably  not 
the  work  of  the  Indians  within  their  jurisdiction.  The  fol 
lowing  quotation,  in  this  connection,  illustrates  the  relation 
of  Winthrop,  Dudley,  and  Eliot,  in  the  government.  It  ap 
pears  in  this  how  much  Governor  Winthrop  relied  upon 
Dudley  in  emergencies ;  and,  on  the  other  hand,  the  clear, 
methodical,  judicial  answer  of  Dudley  shows  to  us  abundant 
reason  for  Winthrop's  confidence  in  him.  "  Haste,  haste. 
For  his  loving  brother,  the  deputy  governor,  with  speed." 
On  receipt  of  this  letter,  the  deputy  governor,  Dudley,  sent 
it  with  this  address  :  "  To  his  honored  friend  Mr.  John  Win 
throp,  governor,  at  his  house  in  Boston,  deliver  it  with  all 
speed."  Governor  Winthrop  writes  upon  it  :  "  SIR,  I  pray 
acquaint  Mr.  Eliot  with  this  letter,  and  let  me  have  your 
advice  about  it  speedily.  So  I  rest  your  loving  brother, 
JOHN  WINTHROP,  governor,  gih  of  5th  month,  1648." 2 

1  Page  283,  this  volume. 

2  The  following  letter  of  Dudley  and  notes  of  Winthrop  exhibit  in  a 


1647]  DUDLEY'S   LETTER  TO   WINTHROP  379 

Eliot  was  acquainted  with  these  Indians  and,  as  we  have 
seen,  lived  opposite  the  house  of  Dudley.  Dudley  answered 
the  above  as  follows.  We  copy  it  in  full  because  every  line 
of  his  composition  is  cherished  by  us,  and  it  also  shows  his 
style  and  his  method  :  — 

"  Upon  reading  this  letter  and  conference  with  Mr.  Eliot, 
I  give  my  advice  (which  you  require)  for  a  pause  in  the  busi 
ness,  before  proceeding  any  further  in  it. 

"  i.  For  that  the  ground  and  warrant  of  our  meddling  in 
it  is  by  this  letter  taken  away,  it  being  denied  that  the 

strong  light  their  relations  to  each  other  and  to  the  government,  at  an 
earlier  date,  in  another  matter. 

To  THE  RIGHT  WORSHIPFUL  JOHN  WINTHROP,  ESQ.,  Governor. 

Sir,  —  In  answer  to  yours,  and  to  what  Mr.  Coddington  hath  by  word 
mentioned,  I  say  as  followeth,  that  I  am  content  himself,  Mr.  Wilbore, 
Mr.  Coggeshall,  Goodman  Freeborn,  and  Richard  Carder,  shall  have 
license  to  depart  out  of  this  Patent  within  a  month  from  hence  follow 
ing,  and  after  to  return  at  their  pleasure  to  remove  their  families,  so  it 
be  within  half  a  year  from  this  day,  —  only  Mr.  Coddington  and  Mr. 
Wilbore  are  to  come  and  go,  and  trade  and  commerce,  and  take  their 
own  time  for  removal  of  their  families.  Likewise  for  Sergeant  Hutch- 
inson  and  Sergeant  Baulston,  and  for  John  Porter,  I  consent  to  their 
departure  and  the  release  of  their  fines,  provided  that  they  shall  depart 
before  the  thirteenth  day  of  the  next  month,  and  not  return  any  more, 
which  if  they  do,  they  are  to  be  liable  to  the  payment  of  their  fines  and 
all  three  to  such  further  censure  as  the  Court  shall  think  meet.  Thus 
with  my  service  remembered,  I  take  leave  and  rest, 

Yours  at  command,  THO  :  DUDLEY. 

19  of  the  12,  1637. 

The  following  order,  in  the  handwriting  of  Governor  Winthrop,  is 
found  on  the  next  leaf  of  this  letter. 

"  Mr.  Wm.  Coddington,  Mr.  Jo  :  Coggeshall,  and  Mr.  Wilbore,  are 
licensed  to  depart  out  of  this  Jurisdiction,  and  they  have  liberty  to 
remove  their  families,  and  dispose  of  their  estates  here  in  convenient 
time,  at  their  own  liberty,  and  to  go  and  come  at  their  liberty,  except 
they,  or  any  of  them  shall  be  otherwise  limited  by  the  General  Court. 

"  Wm  :  Baulston  and  Edward  Hutchinson  have  license  to  depart  out 
of  this  Jurisdiction,  provided  that  they  submit  to  the  order  of  the  next 
General  Court  in  regard  of  the  censure  they  lie  under." 

Indorsed  by  Governor  Winthrop,  "  Brother  Dudley."  (Mass.  Hist. 
Coll.,  4th  series,  vii.  109.) 


380  THOMAS   DUDLEY  [CH.  xxxi 

murdered  were  our  subjects  or  the  murderers  within  our 
jurisdiction. 

"  2.  If  the  murderers  should  be  apprehended  and  brought 
to  us,  the  party  escaping  is,  for  aught  we  yet  know,  all  the 
witness  against  them,  he  affirming  he  knows  their  faces, 
which  yet  is  doubtful,  the  murder  being  done  in  the  night. 

"  3.  It  is  like  in  Mr.  Pynchon's  opinion  to  draw  a  war 
upon  us,  which,  if  (as  he  saith)  it  be  provoked  by  us  volun 
tarily,  not  necessarily,  we  shall  incur  blame  at  home  and  with 
our  confederate  English,  and  want  the  [aid  ?]  from  heaven 
in  it  and  comfort  in  prosecuting  it. 

"  4.  The  charge  and  difficulty  which  the  sending  men  out 
in  hay  and  harvest  time  would  be  considered. 

"5.  A  pause  will  advantage  us  in  hearing  what  the  Narra- 
gansetts  will  do  upon  Uncas,  whom  we  must  defend. 

"  6.  And  if  so,  it  cannot  be  wisdom  in  us  to  stir  up  other 
Indians  against  us  to  join  with  the  Narragansetts. 

"  I  have  forgotten  two  other  reasons  while  I  was  setting 
down  these.  I  think  a  messenger  would  be  dispatched  to 
Mr.  Pynchon  to  let  such  Indians  loose,  if  any  should  be 
apprehended,  which  I  think  will  not  be,  they  who  have  pro 
mised  not  being  like  to  do  it,  or  if  Mr.  Pynchon  see  cause 
to  do  otherwise,  to  leave  it  to  him. 

"  THOMAS  DUDLEY."  * 

It  is  evident  that  Winthrop  was  very  affectionate  in  his 
nature,  while  he  was  capable  of  being  aroused  to  the  acme 
of  momentary  passion.  His  early  letters  to  his  wife  are 
remarkable  for  their  expressions  of  feeling.  We  cannot  fail 
to  note  his  constant  reference  to  Dudley  as  "my  brother 
Dudley"  or  "my  dear  brother  Dudley,"  not  only  in  com 
munications  between  them,  but  in  writing  also  to  other  per 
sons  respecting  him,  which  makes  it  still  more  evident.2 
For  example,  in  a  letter  to  his  son  this  year,  he  says,  "  I 

1  Winthrop,  ii.  470,  471,  App. 

2  The  importance  of  this  we  know  is  diminished  by  the  custom  of  the 
period. 


1648-49]  WINTHROP   AND   DUDLEY  381 

understand  by  my  brother  Dudley,  that  his  son  D,1  finding 
that  Mr.  B.  is  offended  with  his  teaching  at  New  Town,  is 
now  resolved  to  remove,  and  if  he  have  a  call  from  your  peo 
ple  and  assurance  of  reasonable  maintenance  at  present,  and 
what  likelihood  of  competency  afterward,  he  will  come  to 
you."  2 

Robert  C.  Winthrop,  referring  to  the  last  election  of  Win- 
throp  and  his  associates  in  office,  says,  with  great  feeling 
and  good  sense,  "  Winthrop,  Dudley,  Endicott,  Bradstreet, 
—  how  much  of  the  best  history  of  Massachusetts  is  con 
nected  with  these  names  !  For  length  of  service ;  for  stead 
fast  devotion  to  New  England,  whether  in  prosperity  or 
adversity  ;  for  ability  and  integrity ;  for  moral  and  religious 
excellence,  —  we  may  search  the  civil  history  of  the  colony 
in  vain  for  a  nobler  quaternion  than  that  represented  by  the 
names  which  are  thus  closely  grouped  together  in  Governor 
Winthrop's  last  entry  of  a  Massachusetts  election."  3 

1  We  do  not  know  who  he  may  mean  by  "  D." 

3  Winthrop's  Life  and  Letters  of  John  Winthrop,  ii.  385. 

8  Ib.,  ii.  374,  375. 


CHAPTER  XXXII 

WE  regret  very  much  to  be  forced  to  admit  that  the  mel 
ancholy  delusion  of  witchcraft  took  its  start  in  Massachusetts 
in  the  lifetime  of  Winthrop  and  Dudley,  while  we  are  thank 
ful  that  the  great  burden  of  disgraceful  record,  by  chance  or 
otherwise,  falls  upon  later  administrations  in  Massachusetts. 

It  was  in  1691  and  1692  that  there  came  a  panic  under 
the  influence  of  Cotton  Mather's  "  Memorable  Providences." 
"  Censure  is  deserved  by  all  those  who  speak  of  Salem  witch 
craft  as  if  it  were  a  special,  peculiar,  and  unique  product  of 
the  Massachusetts  theocracy,  the  flowering  out  and  full 
fruitage  of  Puritanism.  The  delusions  and  atrocities  con 
nected  with  that  distressing  episode  in  our  history  had  no 
relation  whatever  to  the  distinctive  qualities  of  Puritanism, 
but  involved  in  a  common  share  in  superstitions  and  cruelties 
all  classes  and  ranks  of  men  and  women,  of  every  party  in 
religion,  Papal  or  Protestant,  and  of  no  religion."  1 

A  little  investigation  will  show  to  us  the  influence  of  this 
delusion,  and  the  terrible  atrocities  resulting  from  it  many 
years  before  throughout  Europe.  Winthrop  says,  Fourth 
Month,  4th,  1648  :  "  At  this  Court  one  Margaret  Jones  of 
Charlestown  was  indicted  and  found  guilty  of  witchcraft  and 
hanged  for  it."  2  He  proceeds  to  give  a  revolting  descrip 
tion  of  the  evidence  against  her,  which  is  not  creditable  to 
him,3  and  shows  him,  as  we  have  heretofore  noticed,  to  have 
been  in  no  manner  above  the  superstitions  of  his  age. 

It  is  difficult,  even  with  the  above  allowance,  for  us  to 
understand  how  a  man  could  have  been  so  intelligent  and 

1  George  E.  Ellis's  Puritan  Age  in  Massachusetts,  557. 

2  Winthrop,  ii.  *326. 

8  From  our  standpoint ;  but  we  must  judge  him  from  his  own. 


1648]     WITCHCRAFT  IN  MASSACHUSETTS       383 

wise,  and  yet  entertain  such  whimsical  superstitions.  We 
can  understand  his  accepting  the  scriptural  teaching  in  these 
matters,  and  his  obedience  to  what  he  conceived  to  be  the 
divine  authority  which  bound  him  both  in  religion  and  laws. 
But  the  mystery  still  remains  why  he  should  take  apparent 
satisfaction  in  the  sickening  details  of  this,  Mrs.  Dyer's,  and 
other  cases.1 

Some  of  these  instances  cause  us  to  question  whether 
Winthrop  was  so  entirely  fortunate  in  having  kept  a  diary, 
while  his  associate  neglected  it,  in  which,  while  his  great  and 
amiable  qualities  appear,  his  defects  by  our  standards  also 
have  been  transmitted  to  posterity. 

These  very  defects  contribute  to  our  conviction  of  his 
honesty  and  sincerity,  as  the  good  and  bad  intermixed  in  the 
worthies  of  the  Old  Testament,  without  concealment,  add  to 
our  faith  in  their  character  and  work.  They  are  neverthe 
less  defects. 

It  seems  that  this  was  not  the  first  instance  of  the  execu 
tion  of  a  witch  in  New  England,  but  it  was  the  first  in 
Massachusetts,  and  the  only  one  in  that  period  of  its  history 
which  we  are  required  to  consider.  We  find,  in  Winthrop's 
Journal  (1646),  the  following:  "One  [blank]  of  Windsor 
arraigned  and  executed  at  Hartford  for  a  witch."2  Savage, 
in  his  note  to  this,  evidently  takes  great  satisfaction  in  say 
ing,  "The  Connecticut  law,  December,  1642,  may  be  read  in 
three  lines  of  Trumbull,  Col.  Rec.,  i.  77.  Including  the 
authorities  from  Exodus,  Leviticus,  and  Deuteronomy, 
Massachusetts  borrowed  every  letter  of  the  text  and  com 
ment."  But  it  is  only  just  to  say  that  Massachusetts  had  an 
earlier  law,  being  number  two,  under  her  capital  laws  of 
1641,  in  the  Body  of  Liberties,  of  the  same  import,  although 
in  the  statute  of  1649  she  seems  to  have  taken  the  words  of 
the  Connecticut  statute.  Dudley  cannot  escape  from  his 
share  in  connection  with  this  miserable  business,  both  in 
making  of  the  laws  and  in  the  case  of  Margaret  Jones,  but 
there  is  no  other  record  of  his  approval  of  this  delusion. 
1  Winthrop,  ii.  *26i-*264-  2  Ib.,  ii.  *3o;. 


384  THOMAS   DUDLEY  [CH.  xxxn 

W.  E.  H.  Lecky  has,  no  doubt  truly,  said  of  witchcraft : 
"Arising  amid  the  ignorance  of  an  early  civilization,  it  was 
quickened  into  an  intenser  life  by  a  theological  struggle 
which  allied  terrorism  with  credulity,  and  it  declined  under 
the  influence  of  that  great  rationalistic  movement  which, 
since  the  seventeenth  century,  has  been  on  all  sides  en 
croaching  on  theology.  ...  It  is  impossible  to  leave  the 
history  of  witchcraft  without  reflecting  how  vast  an  amount 
of  suffering  has,  in  at  least  this  respect,  been  removed  by 
the  progress  of  a  rationalistic  civilization."1  Mr.  Lecky's 
entire  chapter  is  full  of  instruction  upon  this  painful  subject. 
We  cannot  be  too  grateful  that  we  have  escaped  many  things 
which  afflicted  our  ancestors. 

History  has  gathered  only  a  few  unrejoicing  berries  from 
fields  of  antiquity,  while  the  unmeasured  and  unknown 
ages,  we  may  be  certain,  were  in  darkness,  gross  ignorance, 
and  despair;  bitter  in  superstition,  cruelty,  and  heartless 
tyranny. 

John  Winthrop,  after  one  month's  confinement  with  fever, 
departed  this  life  the  26th  of  March,  1649  5  not>  however, 
until  the  great  experiment  in  civil  government,  which  has 
no  superior  in  its  importance  to  mankind,  had  been  here 
put  to  the  proof  and  not  found  wanting.  Winthrop,  by  the 
consensus  of  all  men,  is  regarded  as  the  illustrious  father 
of  Massachusetts.  No  greater  honor  can  attach  to  any 
name  in  these  modern  centuries  than  this.  Dudley  was,  as 
we  have  said,  only  second  to  him,  in  responsibility,  in  self- 
consecration,  fortitude,  and  constancy.  They  both  enter 
tained  the  same  impossible  ideal  of  government,  drawn 
from  the  very  oracles  of  God,  bearing  the  superscription,  as 
they  unflinchingly  believed,  of  the  all-knowing  God  and 
Father  of  us  all. 

But  while  they  trusted  too  much  in  the  letter  which  killeth, 

they  nevertheless  surpassed  all   before  them  in  deducing 

from  that  volume  of  truth,  coupled  with  Calvinism,  with  their 

sincere    scholarship,    their   remarkable  common  sense,  and 

1  Hist,  of  Rationalism  in  Europe,  i.  152,  153. 


1649]  WINTHROP   AND   DUDLEY  385 

their  new  experience,  the  foundation,  lasting  and  firm,  of  the 
noblest  superstructure  in  government  yet  evolved.  Winthrop 
has  been  duly  honored  by  state  and  nation  as  he  deserves. 
It  will,  we  trust,  always  be  a  sacred  duty,  reverently  called 
to  remembrance  by  the  people  of  Massachusetts,  to  make 
known  to  every  succeeding  generation  of  its  citizens  the 
matchless  services  of  Winthrop  to  the  commonwealth. 

We  do  not  seek  to  buttress  the  character  of  Dudley  by 
the  strong  personal  record  and  qualities  of  Winthrop,  or  to 
raise  him  above  his  own  just  merit  and  honest  desert.  Many 
a  government  has  been  able,  and  attracted  influence,  when 
it  possessed  in  its  cabinet  a  wise,  far-seeing,  stable  minister. 

Many  a  war  has  been  waged  with  success,  because  in 
prominent  second  command  stood  a  great  lieutenant  or  able 
marshal.  Subordinates  may  not  win  the  honors  and  may  be 
discredited  with  the  mistakes  of  the  campaign,  and  yet  be  the 
very  bone  and  sinew  in  the  forward  movement  of  the  victo 
rious  column.  Whoever  else  was  absent  from  the  councils 
of  state,  we  have  found  both  Winthrop  and  Dudley  there ; 
and  in  all  but  the  first  years,  up  to  1636,  they  were  of  the 
same  opinion  and  party.  We  have  seen  how  they  took 
counsel  together  about  public  matters  in  critical  moments. 
Why  should  they  not  also  be  united  in  the  tribute  and  praise, 
in  the  homage,  of  a  valiant  and  grateful  people  which  owes 
so  much  to  their  steadfast  fortitude,  their  measureless  suffer 
ings  and  stupendous  sacrifices  ?  This  is  the  work  that  we 
have  left  undone  ;  herein  we  have  signally  failed.  We  have 
exalted  Winthrop,  and  have  been  inattentive,  even  hostile,  to 
his  great  associate  and  coequal  in  command  in  the  fierce 
conflict  out  of  which  Massachusetts  came  forth  full-armed 
and  endued  with  that  energy  and  those  originative  principles 
which  have  made  her  great  and  unique  among  states. 

We  need  only  to  refer  to  one  matter  already  mentioned,1 

to  show  how  unjust  to  Dudley  most  writers  have  been.     We 

do  not  overlook  the  fact  that  earlier  in  this  volume  we  have 

adverted  to  this  matter,  but  it  is  impossible  to  do  it  too  often 

1  Page  208,  this  volume. 


386  THOMAS   DUDLEY  [CH.  xxxn 

when  we  contend  with  such  an  innumerable  host  of  able 
writers  through  two  centuries  and  a  half  of  constant  repe 
tition.  Hutchinson  says  briefly,  "Some  writers  say  that, 
upon  his  death-bed,  when  Mr.  Dudley  pressed  him  to  sign  an 
order  of  banishment  of  an  heterodox  person,  he  refused,  say 
ing,  'he  had  done  too  much  of  that  already.'  " 

Dudley  here,  as  it  is  usually  understood,  was  the  willing 
representative  and  type  of  the  narrow,  bigoted,  red-handed 
Puritan ;  and  Winthrop,  on  the  other  hand,  under  a  great 
new  light  and  change,  had  at  the  approach  of  his  final  depar 
ture  been  translated  out  of  his  generation,  into  the  humane 
Christian  convictions  of  our  own  times. 

If  Dudley  ever  did  take  an  order  to  Winthrop,  it  was  an 
order  of  Court,  and  not  his  own  scheme,  or  snare,  for  the 
unorthodox  offender.  He  was  doing,  in  an  official  capacity, 
what  he  had  sworn  to  do  in  the  execution  of  the  laws ;  it 
was  the  act  of  the  Court  and  not  of  Dudley  in  a  personal 
sense,  and  Winthrop,  unless  too  feeble,  was  bound  to  sign 
the  order.  He  had  no  veto  power,  or  power  to  neglect  or 
refuse.  But  the  answer  to  this  tradition,  conclusive  and  full, 
is  that  the  Rev.  Marmaduke  Matthews,  the  heretic  in  ques 
tion,  was  at  the  date  of  Winthrop' s  death  a  minister  in  Hull 
in  good  standing,  later  in  Maiden ;  that  he  came  under  some 
dealing  by  the  Court  afterwards,  but  the  record  shows  what 
was  done  in  his  case,  and  no  order  of  banishment  issued,  so 
none  was  taken  to  Winthrop  by  Dudley,  and  the  whole  story 
rests  on  a  pernicious  tradition  which  found  its  way  into  "  New 
England  Judged,"  by  George  Bishop,  page  226.1  Matthews 
was  before  the  Court  in  the  next  administration  of  Endi- 
cott,  May,  i649,2  f°r  the  first  time,  not  upon  a  question  of 
banishment,  and  was  only  to  be  admonished  by  Governor 
Endicott.3 

1  Felt's  Eccl.  Hist.,  i.  364.     See  Wonder- Working  Providence,  lib. 
iii.  c.  vii.,  or  Poole's  edition,  pp.  211,  212,  cix.,  cxi.;  Mass.  Col.  Rec., 
iii.  29-32. 

2  Felt's  Eccl.  Hist.,  ii.  18,  42,  43,  53,  54,  60,  62,  69,  136. 

8  Mass.  Col.  Rec.,  ii.  276;  Winthrop,  i.  *273,  note,  ii.  *I75,  note. 


1649]       AN   ASSOCIATION   AGAINST   LONG  HAIR         387 

From  this  conclusive  evidence  of  the  record,  this  odious 
comparative  estimate  of  these  two  foremost  men  at  the  begin 
ning  of  Massachusetts,  to  the  enduring  reproach  of  Dudley, 
ought  to  perish,  and  history  ought  to  do  him  that  tardy  jus 
tice  which  it  has  declined  to  render  to  him  for  nearly  two 
and  one  half  centuries.  These  dear  brothers  were,  during 
the  last  thirteen  years  of  their  companionship,  —  years  of 
unsurpassed  importance  in  Massachusetts, — one  in  purpose, 
one  in  their  ideal  of  the  commonwealth,  which  was  to  come 
forth  from  their  righteous  planting.  They  "  were  lovely  and 
pleasant  in  their  lives,  and  in  death  they  were  not  divided."  1 

Endicott  succeeded  Winthrop,  in  May,  1649,  as  governor. 
Hutchinson  says  :  "  I  fancy  that  about  this  time  the  scrupu 
losity  of  the  good  people  of  the  colony  was  at  its  height. 
Soon  after  Mr.  Winthrop's  death,  Mr.  Endicott,  the  most 
rigid  of  any  of  the  magistrates,  being  governor,  he  joined 
with  the  other  assistants  in  an  association  against  long 
hair."  2 

There  has  been  no  period  in  history  which  has  not  shown 
a  variety  of  indifferent  acts  or  matters  to  have  been  adjudged 
evil,  and  to  have  received  utter  disapproval,  and  their  adher- 

1  2  Samuel,  chap.  i.  ver.  23. 

2  Hutchinson,  i.  151.     The  following  are  the  words  of  Agreement 
and  Association,  which  we  quote,  because  Dudley  was  a  party  to  it, 
and  because  it  is  no  doubt  the  better  method  to  let  these  people  speak 
for  themselves  when  it  is  possible  to  do  so :  — 

"  Forasmuch  as  the  wearing  of  long  hair,  after  the  manner  of  ruffians 
and  barbarous  Indians,  has  begun  to  invade  New  England,  contrary  to 
the  rule  of  God's  word,  which  says  it  is  a  shame  for  a  man  to  wear  long 
hair  (i  Cor.  xi.  14),  as  also  the  commendable  custom  generally  of  all  the 
godly  of  our  nation,  until  within  this  few  years. 

"  We  the  magistrates  who  have  subscribed  this  paper  (for  the  show 
ing  of  our  innocency  in  this  behalf)  do  declare  and  manifest  our  dislike 
and  detestation  against  the  wearing  of  such  long  hair,  as  against  a  thing 
uncivil  and  unmanly,  whereby  men  do  deform  themselves  and  offend 
sober  and  modest  men,  and  do  corrupt  good  manners.  We  do  thereby 
earnestly  entreat  all  the  elders  of  this  jurisdiction  (as  often  as  they  shall 
see  cause)  to  manifest  their  zeal  against  it  in  their  -public  administra 
tions,  and  to  take  care  that  the  members  of  their  respective  churches 


388  THOMAS   DUDLEY  [CH.  xxxn 

ents  the  persecution,  at  least  the  ostracism,  of  those  in 
power. 

Governor  Endicott  seems  to  have  been  very  punctilious 
and  much  in  distress  about  these  unimportant  matters.  He 
began  by  supporting  Roger  Williams  in  requiring  "  all  the 
women  of  his  congregation  to  wear  veils,"  in  1634,  and  in 
the  same  year  he  cut  the  red  cross  out  of  the  king's  colors, 
because  it  was  donated  to  the  king  by  the  Pope  and  was 
idolatrous,  and  now  he  begins  a  crusade  against  long  hair 
among  the  first  acts  of  his  administration  in  1649,  as  gov 
ernor. 

It  would  not  be  just  to  Endicott  to  assume  that  he  was 
the  only  man  who  was  vigilant  in  this  cause.  The  names  to 
the  document  forbid  that ;  but  he  has  the  credit  of  being  the 
chief  to  enforce  it. 

Even  the  sweet  soul  of  Eliot,  the  apostle  to  the  Indians, 
was  aroused  to  high  tension  by  this  strange  departure  from 
rectitude,  regarding  it  a  "luxurious  feminine  prolixity  for 
men  to  wear  their  hair  long."  An  opinion  which  most  sensi 
ble  people  nowadays  would  heartily  approve  of,  although  on 
other  grounds,  long  hair  for  men  being  allowed  by  common 
consent  in  these  days,  as  a  special  favor  to  weak  persons 
with  poetical  tendencies,  or  to  those  persons  whose  exacting 
business  engagements  afford  no  time  in  which  to  protect 
themselves  against  this  capillary  enormity. 

Eliot  was  especially  scandalized  by  the  brethren  of  his 

be  not  defiled  therewith  ;  that  so,  such  as  shall  prove  obstinate  and 

will  not  reform  themselves,  may  have  God  and  man  to  witness  against 

them.     The  third  month,  loth  day,  1649. 

"Jo.  ENDICOTT,  Governor, 
THO.  DUDLEY,  Dep.  Gov., 
RICH.  BELLINGHAM, 
RICHARD  SALTONSTALL, 
INCREASE  NOWELL, 
WILLIAM  HIBBINS, 
THOMAS  FLINT, 
ROBERT  BRIDGES, 
SIMON  BRADSTREET." 

(Hutchinson,  i.  152.) 


1 649]          PRESIDENT   OF  THE   CONFEDERACY  389 

own  profession.  It  grieved  him  beyond  measure  that  they 
"  ruffled  their  heads  in  excesses  of  this  kind."  But  with  the 
lofty  resignation  of  Mrs.  Partington  armed  with  her  mop,  in 
powerless  conflict  with  the  Atlantic,  and  with  a  philosophy 
worthy  of  a  great  cause,  he  at  last  concludes,  "  The  lust  is 
insuperable."  1  Hutchinson  says  the  rule  in  New  England 
was,  "  no  hair  below  the  ears,"  ministers  to  go  patentibus 
auribus? 

Dudley  was  again,  in  1649,  appointed  commissioner  of  the 
United  Colonies  for  the  last  time.  He  was  seventy-three 
years  of  age,  but  he  was  at  once  chosen  president  of  the 
confederacy.  He  was,  however,  prevented  to  some  extent 
by  ill  health  from  attending  its  sessions.  This  attracts  our 
attention  more,  because  he  was  always  present  at  the  Gen 
eral  Court,  and  discharged  with  distinguished  fidelity  all  of 
his  official  obligations.  We  are  forced  to  regard  this  illness 
as  a  premonition  that  his  great  life  work  was  approaching  its 
termination.  It  was  the  beginning  of  the  end.3 

It  was  stated  early  in  this  work,  as  the  testimony  of  some 
of  the  best  informed,  that  the  great  burden  and  responsibility 
of  the  government  rested  upon  the  two  conspicuous  leaders, 
Winthrop  and  Dudley.  And  we  are  convinced  it  might  as 
truly  be  said  that  when  Winthrop  was  gone,  then  the  chief 
place  came  to  Dudley ;  and  Mather  has  related  that  after  the 
death  of  Dudley,  the  notice  and  respect  of  the  colony  fell 
chiefly  on  Endicott.4 

We  do  not  forget  that  they  proceeded  in  1649  to  choose 
Endicott,  and  not  Dudley,  governor.  But  Dudley's  five 
years  did  not  come  around  until  the  next  year,  when  he  was 
chosen  governor  for  the  last  time. 

He  was,  in  1649,  deputy  governor  and  president  of  the 
confederacy.  As  we  have  noticed,  he  was  ill ;  we  know 

1  Mass.  Hist.  Coll.,  viii.  27;  J.  B.  Moore's  Memoirs  of  Am.  Gov 
ernors,  359,  note. 

2  Hutchinson,  i.  152. 

8  Plymouth  Col.  Rec.,  ix.  149,  160. 
4  Mather's  Magnalia. 


390  THOMAS   DUDLEY  [CH.  xxxn 

nothing  of  that  sickness  except  that  it  deprived  the  confed 
eracy  of  his  services. 

There  is  reason  to  believe  that  events  of  the  greatest 
importance,  both  in  England  and  America,  must  have  con 
tributed  much  with  his  advancing  years  towards  the  aggra 
vation  of  his  sickness.  The  sense  of  loneliness  and  respon 
sibility  in  a  great  national  crisis,  his  strong,  intense  nature, 
which  had  endured  so  many  hardships  and  surmounted  so 
many  difficulties,  and  survived  in  the  midst  of  fallen  asso 
ciates  in  so  many  struggles,  was  in  this  critical  juncture 
consuming  itself  with  overwhelming  anxiety. 

The  irreparable  loss  of  Winthrop  was  hardly  realized  by 
him  when  news  not  less  startling,  possibly  more  sensational 
and  potent  in  peril,  came  from  England  that  the  people  in 
their  majesty  and  might  had  beheaded  Charles  I.  Or,  in  the 
spirit  but  not  the  words  of  an  eminent  Scotchman,  they  had 
made  kings  know  that  they  had  a  joint  in  their  necks. 

His  sympathies  had  been  with  the  people  against  the  king, 
but  he  may  well  have  stood  aghast  in  presence  of  this  final 
catastrophe,  which  had  exceeded  in  bold  and  daring  execu 
tion  any  thought  that  he  had  entertained  respecting  the 
revolution.  We  do  not  know  how  he  viewed  it,  but  we  do 
know  that  the  first  feeling  with  the  public,  in  America  as  in 
England,  was  one  of  consternation,  and  then  of  wonder  as 
to  the  next  consequences  to  follow  this  violent  taking  off  of 
a  king. 

It  is  needful  to  keep  in  mind  that  the  church  doctrine  of 
the  divine  right  of  kings  was  commonly  accepted,  and  that 
they  were  not  amenable  to  human  tribunals.  It  required 
another  half  a  century  and  another  revolution  to  explode 
that  theory  and  to  settle  forever  that  the  king  himself  is  of 
the  people,  by  the  people,  and  for  the  people,  and  amenable 
to  the  people.  But  the  theory  of  the  divine  right  had 
received  a  mortal  blow  in  the  destruction  of  Charles  I.,  from 
which  it  had  no  chance  of  recovery. 

Consider  for  a  moment  the  thoughts  and  feelings  of  the 
subjects  of  the  king,  three  thousand  miles  away,  who  had 


1649]  EXECUTION   OF   CHARLES   I  391 

not  the  daily  excitement  in  London  to  stir  them  up  to  mutiny 
and  prepare  them,  step  by  step,  for  the  final  event.  They 
had  been  taught,  and  their  ancestors  before  them  for  many 
generations,  that  it  was  treason  in  a  subject  to  impeach  the 
motives  or  question  the  conduct  of  a  king.  It  is  a  proverb 
expressing  the  convictions  of  men  for  ages,  and  even  now 
it  is  held  in  a  Pickwickian  sense,  that  "  the  king  can  do  no 
wrong  ;  "  evil  is  solely  from  the  ministry. 

A  powerful  recoil  had  returned  to  America,  whence  much 
of  the  energy  and  leaven  which  had  permeated  England, 
and  had  wrought  this  daring  deed,  had  originated  without  a 
dream  of  its  fatal  outcome. 

What  would  be  the  issue  of  this  dreadful  affair  in  Eng 
land  ?  in  America  ?  was  the  question.  Winthrop  is  thought 
never  to  have  known  of  the  execution.  The  leaders  must 
hold  on  their  course  without  his  wise  counsel,  without  that 
confidence  his  sound  judgment  always  inspired,  without  his 
foresight  and  prudence,  taking  upon  themselves  his  great 
share  of  public  responsibility. 

It  could  hardly  be  expected  that  Dudley  so  late  in  life 
could  suffer  this  accumulation  of  sorrows,  perils,  and  respon 
sibilities,  without  being  overcome,  and  feeling  more  than  he 
had  ever  done  before  the  extreme  necessity  to  cherish  his 
resources  of  health  and  strength,  and  "  husband  out  life's 
taper  at  the  close." 

The  Book  of  Discipline  produced  by  the  synod  of  Cam 
bridge  in  1647,  was  in  1649  commended  to  the  consideration 
of  the  churches  by  the  General  Court  for  their  approval, 
before  the  action  of  the  Court  thereon.1  The  Book  of  the 
General  Laws  and  Liberties  concerning  the  inhabitants  of 
Massachusetts,  collected  out  of  the  records  of  the  General 
Court  for  the  several  years  wherein  they  were  made  and 
established,  was  in  May,  1649,  revised  by  the  Court,  and 
"  disposed  into  an  alphabetical  order  and  published."  2 

1  Mass.  Col.  Rec.,  ii.  285. 

2  W.  H.  Whitmore's  Col.  Laws  of  Mass.,  79,  119;  Mass.  Col.  Rec., 
ii.  286. 


392  THOMAS   DUDLEY  [CH.  xxxn 

We  are  certain  that  great  interest  must  always  be  found 
in  the  changes  in  the  courts  and  administration  of  justice  in 
this  constructive  period,  wherein  everything,  including  laws 
and  customs,  was  rounding  into  form  ;  and  it  is  a  matter  of 
constant  surprise  how  many  of  their  expedients  in  legal  prac 
tice  and  otherwise,  then  first  tested  and  tried,  became  per 
manent,  and  have  continued  to  this  day  useful  and  with 
little  change.  Their  laws  grew  out  of  daily  experience  and 
necessity  in  human-  society,  which  after  all  has  much  in  com 
mon  from  age  to  age,  and  therefore  whatever  method  is  well 
adapted  to  a  useful  purpose  easily  becomes  permanent. 

Not  long  after  the  death  of  the  king,  the  public  mind  of 
England  was  moved  in  behalf  of  the  Indians  in  New  Eng 
land  through  the  correspondence  of  John  Eliot,  aided  by 
the  great  influence  of  Governor  Winslow.  Parliament  was 
induced  on  July  27,  1649, to  Pass  an  act  "f°r  promoting  and 
propagating  the  Gospel  of  Jesus  Christ  in  New  England"  l 

"  This,"  says  Mr.  Drake,  in  his  "  History  and  Antiquities 
of  Boston,"  page  316,  "was  the  origin  of  the  Society  for 
Propagating  the  Gospel  among  the  Indians,  —  a  society  of 
great  importance  so  long  as  the  race  for  which  it  was  insti 
tuted  were  of  any  account.  And  it  is  specially  noticed  here 
*  because  it  '  has  all  along  had  its  commissioners  at  Boston.'  " 
The  Hon.  Robert  Boyle,  appointed  by  Charles  II.,  was  its 
first  governor  in  1662.  We  mention  this  because  it  is  plea 
sant  to  connect  his  name  with  philanthropic  work  in  Amer 
ica,  since  no  person  after  Lord  Bacon  had  in  England  such 
a  reputation  in  scientific  scholarship.2 

1  Parliamentary  Hist,  of  Eng.,  xix.  156. 

2  Boerhaave  declared  that  "we  owe  to  him  the  secrets  of  fire,  air, 
water,  animals,  plants,  and  fossils."     He  contributed  generously  to  the 
funds  of  the  above-mentioned  society,  and  left  a  bequest  to  it  in  his 
will.     The  correspondence  between  Boyle  and  the  commissioners  of 
'the  United  Colonies,  in  his  official  relation  as  governor,  is  very  instruc 
tive.    (Hazard,  ii.  453,  470,  491.) 


CHAPTER   XXXIII 

DUDLEY  was  for  the  fourth  and  last  time  elected  governor, 
May  22,  1650.  It  was  now  twenty  years  since  "the  great 
emigration  "  had  come  to  America  under  the  leadership  of 
Winthrop  and  himself.  What  a  change  in  that  twenty 
years  had  taken  place  in  New  England.  What  a  large 
amount  of  territory  had  been  settled  and  brought  under 
cultivation ;  what  an  extent  of  constructive  work  had  been 
accomplished,  in  laws,  in  the  government  of  towns,  in  the 
holding  of  courts,  in  legal  practice,  in  customs  of  society,  in 
a  hundred  forms  distinctly  American ;  and  lastly,  what  an 
individualism,  and  democratic  spirit,  and  independency  had 
leavened  the  whole  community,  and  taken  it  far  on  the  road 
towards  the  thought  of  "  liberty,  equality,  and  fraternity," 
the  battle-cry  of  a  subsequent  revolution. 

These  twenty  years  of  experience  and  testing  of  princi 
ples,  oh  a  new  continent,  with  a  new  and  free  environment, 
were  initiatory  in  that  general  revolution  on  both  sides  of 
the  sea  which  was  determined  on  the  overthrow  of  hier 
archies,  kingcraft,  and  priestcraft,  with  every  form  of  feu 
dalism. 

It  was  the  beginning  of  the  most  quiet  but  most  potent 
revolt  of  the  people  in  the  interests  of  liberty  which  the 
world  had  seen,  and  was  followed  by  consequences  of  which 
no  one  had  then  a  conception. 

As  we  read  in  the  records  of  the  General  Court  that  it 
granted  the  request  of  Dudley  and  others,  executors  to  the 
last  will  of  Isaac  Johnson,  respecting  a  certain  amount  of 
land,  we  are  drawn  back  instinctively  to  the  early  days  of 
the  colony,  with  a  mingled  feeling  of  sadness,  and  of  delight 
ful  recollections  of  the  ship  Arbella  and  of  her  distinguished 


394  THOMAS   DUDLEY  [CH.  xxxm 

passengers,  of  Isaac  Johnson  and  the  Lady  Arbella,  the 
sister  of  the  Earl  of  Lincoln,  "who  took  America  on  her 
way  to  Heaven."  Dudley  was  an  original  executor  to  this 
will,  a  position  of  honor  which  his  connection  with  the 
family  during  many  years  may  in  some  measure  have 
brought  to  him.1 

The  inhabitants  of  Boston  wisely  petitioned  the  General 
Court  to  repeal  the  payment  of  duties  on  the  part  of  the 
inhabitants  of  the  other  colonies  exporting  from,  or  import 
ing  goods  into  the  colony  of  Massachusetts,  because  Con 
necticut  had  suspended  the  taking  of  customs  at  Saybrook, 
at  the  mouth  of  the  Connecticut  River.  The  Court  granted 
this  petition,  and  was  no  doubt  glad  to  find  itself  out  of  the 
entanglement  of  a  retaliatory  act,  by  which  it  had,  not  to 
its  credit,  involved  the  other  colonies  in  its  attempt  to  pun 
ish  Connecticut.2 

The  most  important  act  by  far  of  the  General  Court  in 
the  year  1650  was  the  charter  granted  by  it  to  Harvard 
College,  which,  by  a  strange  succession  of  circumstances 
hereinbefore  mentioned,  still  remains  to  this  day,  to  be  the 
charter  of  the  University. 

Governor  Joseph  Dudley,  as  we  have  seen,  had  a  bold  and 
conspicuous  part  to  perform  in  connection  with  this  matter. 
It  is  certainly  no  small  honor  to  Governor  Thomas  Dudley 
that  as  executive  his  name  is  attached  to  this  illustrious  and 
ever-memorable  document,  no  matter  how  perfunctory  the 
act  of  signing  may  have  been.3 

Plymouth  relinquished  to  Massachusetts  its  claim  upon 
the  Warwick  and  Pawtuxet  district,  now  of  Rhode  Island, 
the  subject  of  long  contention,  involving  Samuel  Gorton, 
Benedict  Arnold,  and  divers  Indians.  It  was  annexed  to 
the  county  of  Suffolk.4 

Two  days  later  the  Court  made  preparation  to  try  the 
question  of  the  right  and  title  of  Massachusetts  to  the  afore 
said  district  in  dispute,  with  Gorton's  company,  inviting  dif- 

1  Mass.  Col.  Rec.,  iv.  7.  2  Ib.,  iv.  n.  3  Ib.,  iv.  13. 

4  Ib.,  iv.  17,  19;  Palfrey,  ii.  362,  363. 


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1650]  LEX  MERCATORIA  395 

ferent  judges  and  a  jury  to  determine  the  points  of  differ 
ence,  "that  so  mutual  peace  and  love  may  be  preserved 
amongst  us."  This  does  not  look  like  a  wicked  purpose  on 
the  part  of  Massachusetts  to  hold  this  territory  in  any  event, 
rightfully  or  otherwise.  We  are  well  persuaded  that  the 
Massachusetts  government  meant  to  be  just  and  equitable 
in  its  dealings  with  its  neighbors  ;  and  that  if  its  conduct  did 
not  seem  consistent  with  that  view  at  all  times,  if  it  appeared 
to  be  selfish  and  self-seeking,  at  those  times  in  general  it  was 
contending  for  its  supposed  self-preservation,  or  protecting 
the  weak  and  innocent  against  the  violence  of  wicked  men. 

Strangers  have  liberty  granted  to  them  to  try  actions  one 
with  another  in  the  courts  of  Massachusetts. 

Marmaduke  Matthews  had  an  opportunity  given  to  him  to 
explain  his  heresy,  and  to  give  satisfaction  on  June  28,  1650, 
fifteen  months  after  the  decease  of  Winthrop,  and  there  is 
no  order  of  banishment  yet  in  the  case;  it  had  not  even 
reached  its  concluding  hearings  and  final  judgment,  nor  did 
it  for  a  long  time  ;  and  when  judgment  did  come,  as  we  have 
noticed,  it  was  not  of  banishment.1 

No  one  thing,  it  may  reasonably  be  said,  so  thoroughly 
registers  the  advancement  of  a  people  in  rationalism,  in  busi 
ness,  in  morals,  in  culture,  and  in  the  comforts  of  life,  as  the 
laws  they  make  and  are  able  faithfully  to  execute,  thus  prov 
ing  that  the  public  sentiment  of  their  age  approves  of  and  is 
abreast  of  the  legislation. 

The  General  Court  appointed  a  committee  to  examine  a 
certain  book  which  had  appeared,  and  was  entitled  "  Lex 
Mercatoria,"  or  a  treatise  on  the  Law  Merchant,  then  exist 
ing.  This  committee  was  directed  to  select  from  the  book 
those  provisions  needful  in  the  commerce  of  the  colony, 
particularly  with  reference  to  maritime  affairs.  They  have 
discovered  that  such  laws  have  been  made  and  published  in 
England,  France,  and  other  kingdoms  and  commonwealths.2 

This  is  significant,  for  it  informs  us  that  the  colony  was 
entering  the  commerce  of  the  world,  which  is  the  next  step 

1  Mass.  Col.  Rec.,  iv.  21.  2  Ib.,  Hi.  193,  252  ;  iv.  10,  69. 


396  THOMAS   DUDLEY  [CH.  xxxm 

to  entering  the  sisterhood  of  nations.1  It  no  longer  subsists 
on  what  it  can  produce,  in  poverty  and  want,  omitting  the 
comforts  and  luxuries  of  life.  It  seeks  now  all  that  the  earth 
can  give.  It  produces  more  than  it  needs,  and  seeks  a  mar 
ket  over  the  sea  for  the  surplus. 

A  strong  desire  and  felt  need  for  this  department  of  law, 
more  extended  and  far-reaching  in  its  use  and  effects  than 
the  statutes  found  in  the  Body  of  Liberties,  forcibly  shows 
us  how  very  much  they  had  already  advanced  towards  national 
life  and  national  requirements,  to  meet  on  the  highways  of 
trade  the  subjects  of  foreign  nations. 

Bozoun  Allen  of  earlier  fame  reappears  on  the  record.  It 
will  be  remembered  that  he  was  in  1645  the  rival  of  Anthony 
Eames,  indeed,  the  deputies'  candidate  against  the  magis 
trates',  for  the  position  of  captain  of  a  militia  company  in 
Hingham ;  and  that  in  this  contest  at  last  Winthrop  was 
impeached,  but  triumphed  finally  over  all  of  his  opponents  in 
a  "  little  speech,"  which  has  been  greatly  commended. 

It  seems  that  this  Bozoun  Allen  had  the  audacity  or  effron 
tery  to  attack  Dudley  early  in  1650,  making  charges  directly 
to  Governor  Dudley  himself,  that  he  had  falsified  and  made 
misstatements  regarding  Hingham  people,  and  the  agitation 
of  Cotton  and  Wilson  respecting  them  at  Weymouth.  He 
seems,  from  his  apology  left  on  the  record,  to  have  aroused 
a  somewhat  vigorous  adverse  party,  who  did  not  take  the 
trouble  to  soothe  him  with  "little  speeches"  and  the  sweet 
reasonableness  of  actions  and  law,  but  set  him  at  once  to  eat 
humble  pie. 

It  is  only  just  to  say  of  this  misguided  man,  that  he  dis 
claimed  any  intention  to  be  discourteous,  although  the  evi- 

1  Mr.  Justice  Kent  says,  "When  Lord  Mansfield  mentioned  the  Law 
Merchant  as  being  a  branch  of  public  law,  it  was  because  that  law  did 
not  rest  essentially  for  its  character  and  authority  on  the  positive  insti 
tutions  and  local  customs  of  any.  particular  country,  but  consisted  of 
certain  principles  of  equity  and  usages  of  trade,  which  general  conven 
ience  and  a  common  sense  of  justice  had  established,  to  regulate  the 
dealing  of  merchants  and  mariners  in  all  the  commercial  countries  of 
the  civilized  world."  (Kent's  Comm.,  iii.  2.) 


1650]  THE   MATTER  OF   BOZOUN   ALLEN  397 

dence  showed  that  he  had  been.  We  are  only  interested  in 
that  portion  of  his  gentle  and  beautiful  apology  which  de 
scribes  Governor  Dudley,  and  Allen's  estimate  of  him,  under 
the  circumstances,  or  it  may  be  in  fact.  He  says,  with 
humility  mingled  with  sadness,  "  and  most  of  all  to  defame 
him  whom  I  know  and  acknowledge  to  be,  and  have  been,  so 
eminently  serviceable  unto,  and  tender  of,  the  good  of  this 
country,  and  do,  in  very  deed,  account  it  a  matter  of  grief 
unto  my  very  soul  that  he  should  be  reproached  or  the  least 
eclipsed  by  any,  and  much  more  that  I  should  be,  or  appre 
hended  to  be,  an  occasion  thereof.  Secondly,  I  do  solemnly 
profess  that  I  neither  have,  nor  then  had,  such  a  thought  in 
my  heart,  nor  I  trust  ever  shall  harbor  such  a  thought ;  as  if 
he,  viz.,  our  Honored  Governor,  did,  or  would,  willingly  speak 
or  relate  anything  untrue  or  false ;  nor  know  I  any  ground 
for  myself,  or  any  man,  so  to  conceive,  much  less  to  conclude 
or  affirm,  concerning  him. 

"  Thirdly,  my  humble  request  to  this  honored  Court,  and 
in  particular  to  our  Honored  Governor,  is,  that  I  may  be 
favorably  construed  according  to  my  upright  and  sincere 
acknowledgment  and  protestation,  and  that  whatsoever  in 
any  of  my  expressions  on  the  occasion  aforesaid  was  justly 
offensive,  in  one  respect  or  other,  may  be  remitted  and  cov 
ered  with  the  mantle  of  love,  which  hopes,  believes,  and  suf- 
fereth  much. 

"  Fourthly,  for  vindication  of  our  Honored  Governor  from 
all  appearance  of  reproach  by  my  occasion,  my  humble  re 
quest  is,  that  this  acknowledgment  may  be  publicly  read 
before  the  Court ;  so,  desiring  your  prayers  to  God  for  me, 
that  I  may  be  more  circumspect  and  inoffensive  in  all  points 
for  time  to  come,  I  humbly  subscribe  myself,  willing,  in  all  I 
may,  to  serve  and  honor  you. 

"  BOZOUN  ALLEN."  l 

Allen  may  have  used  these  conciliatory  and  appreciative 
words  under  constraint  from  the  magistrates,  but  neither  he 
1  Mass.  Col.  Rec.,  iii.  25,  26,  206,  207. 


398  THOMAS   DUDLEY  [CH.  xxxm 

nor  they  are  open  to  a  suspicion  of  premeditated  adulation. 
There  was  a  grave  sincerity  in  the  words  and  lives  of  all 
of  them,  which  assures  us  that  the  kind  words  said  of  Dud 
ley  were  then  thought  by  the  magistrates  and  the  public  not 
to  exceed  his  just  merits.  And  therefore  this  document  was 
spread  upon  the  records  by  the  Court  with  their  distinguished 
approval,  as  a  sort  of  public  indorsement  of  Dudley  by  his 
contemporaries. 

The  Court  now  ordered  that  no  man  shall  strike  his  wife, 
nor  any  woman  her  husband,  under  a  penalty  not  exceeding 
ten  pounds  or  corporal  punishment.  This  was  a  humane  and 
righteous  law. 

William  Pynchon,  of  Springfield,  published  a  book  en 
titled  "  The  Meritorious  Price  of  our  Redemption,  Justifi 
cation,"  etc.,  which  appeared  in  New  England  in  1650,  and 
created  a  great  commotion  in  church  and  state.  The  effect 
of  the  heresy  was  more  dangerous,  and  created  greater  con 
sternation,  because  Pynchon  was  a  highly  esteemed  citizen, 
and  had  been  long  an  assistant  and  influential  person  in 
Massachusetts.  He  had  in  his  remote  home  been  pondering 
with  the  assistants  over  the  works  of  the  great  biblical  schol 
ars,  of  many  lands  and  different  periods,  the  central  thought 
of  Orthodox  Christianity,  and  had  become  bewildered  in  the 
blinding  mists  of  heterodoxy,  in  the  opinion  of  the  sound, 
well-seasoned  divines  and  leaders  in  Christian  thought  in 
Massachusetts  at  that  time. 

The  General  Court  ordered  his  book  to  be  burned  in  the 
market-place  in  Boston  by  the  common  executioner,  and  pro 
ceeded  to  cure  Pynchon  of  his  errors,  employing  the  learned 
John  Norton  to  answer  his  book  and  furnish  an  antidote 
full  and  ample  to  its  heretical  virus.  Pynchon  soon  retired 
to  England,  not  to  return,  and  the  colony  lost  a  valuable 
citizen. 

History  for  more  than  two  centuries  clearly  indicates  to 
us  the  utter  folly  of  the  action  of  the  Court  in  Pynchon's 
case.  But  they  had  not  our  advantage,  and  they  acted  up 
to  the  light  they  had.  There  are  not  wanting  to-day  people 


1650]  FATHER   DRUILLETTE  399 

of  the  same  ideas,  spirit,  and  purpose  of  the  Court  then,  but 
their  methods  are  more  concealed  and  subtle.1 

Governor  D'Aillebout,  of  Canada,  had  labored  since  1648, 
by  correspondence,  messengers,  and  otherwise,  to  secure  the 
alliance  and  affiliation  of  New  England  with  Canada,  includ 
ing  reciprocity  in  commerce.  The  government  of  Massachu 
setts  wisely  and  constantly  declined  all  overtures.2  Father 
Druillette,  a  zealous  Jesuit  missionary,  came  in  1650  on  one 
of  those  diplomatic  visits.  He  informs  us  that  he  was 
received  in  Boston  by  Major-General  Gibbons,  who,  he  says, 
"  gave  me  a  key  of  an  apartment  in  his  house,  where  I  might 
freely  pray  and  go  through  the  services  of  my  religion ;  and 
besought  me  to  make  his  house  my  home  while  I  continued 
in  Boston."  The  general  went  with  him  to  "a  village  called 
Roxbury,"  to  call  upon  Governor  Dudley.  He  was  invited 
by  the  governor  to  dine  in  that  home  which,  as  we  have 
seen,  is  said  to  have  had  more  distinguished  strangers  be 
neath  its  roof  than  any  other  in  the  commonwealth. 

He  was  subsequently  dined  in  like  manner  at  the  home  of 
Governor  Bradford,  at  Plymouth.  But  the  friend  and  hospi 
tality  that  he  most  valued  were  over  the  way  from  Dudley's 
house,  in  the  residence  of  Eliot,  a  brother  Indian  missionary, 
not  of  the  Latin  church,  but  of  the  church  universal. 

Governor  Dudley  and  other  citizens  of  Massachusetts 
must  have  been  perplexed  and  disconcerted  in  extending 
courtesies  to  this  Jesuit  Father,  with  the  law  of  1647,  which 
they  had  constructed  themselves,  confronting  them.  "  No 
Jesuit  or  ecclesiastical  person  ordained  by  the  authority  of 
the  Pope  shall  henceforth  come  within  our  jurisdiction."  3 

They  may  have  consoled  themselves  with  the  opinion  that 
his  official  agency,  representing  New  France,  eliminated  his 
religion  and  personality  for  the  time  being,  and  left  him  only 
a  commissioner  of  his  country.  Dudley  seems  to  have  been 
wary  of  him  and  of  his  proposals  and  schemes. 

1  Mass.  Col.  Rec.,  iii.  215,  230;  The  Puritans  in  England  and  New 
England,  by  Byington,  185,  281. 

2  Hazard,  182.  «  Mass.  Col.  Rec.,  iii.  112. 


400  THOMAS   DUDLEY  [CH.  xxxm 

This  concluding  year  of  Dudley's  gubernatorial  life  had 
been  full  of  important  events,  both  in  England  and  America, 
and  now  it  had  reached  its  close,  and  he  was  about  to  depart 
from  his  great  office,  never  to  return,  full  of  years,  full  of 
honors,  still  holding  in  undiminished  strength  the  affection 
and  confidence  of  his  fellow  -  citizens,  who  had  never  dis 
trusted  him  nor  been  false  to  him. 

We  may  justly  apply  to  Governor  Dudley  in  his  official 
life  the  beautiful  words  of  Tacitus,  respecting  Agricola: 
"  Scorning  to  disguise  his  sentiments,  he  acted  always  with 
a  generous  warmth,  at  the  hazard  of  making  enemies."  1 

The  following  is  the  testimonial  of  the  Court  on  his 
services,  in  1650 :  "  This  Court  doth  with  all  thankfulness 
acknowledge  the  good  service  of  Thomas  Dudley,  Esq.,  our 
late  honored  governor,  in  respect  of  his  great  care  and  faith 
fulness  in  the  discharge  of  that  trust  which  was  committed 
unto  him,  and  do  in  the  behalf  of  the  country  render  him 
hearty  thanks  for  the  same,  and  desire  his  kind  acceptance 
of  one  hundred  marks  [£66  133.  4d.]  as  a  slender  manifes 
tation  of  our  due  respect  unto  him,  until  we  shall  be  better 
enabled  to  declare  the  same,  which  we  order  shall  be  paid 
him  by  the  treasurer  out  of  the  next  county  levy."  2 

Endicott  was  elected  governor  in  May,  1651,  and  Dudley, 
for  the  twelfth  time,  deputy  governor. 

Dudley  now  received  a  letter  from  Governor  Edward  Wins- 
low,  the  agent  of  the  colony  in  England,  to  the  effect  that 
all  warrants  and  processes  in  the  colony  should  hereafter  be 
issued  in  the  name  of  Parliament,  or  "  of  the  keepers  of  the 
liberties  of  England,"  instead  of  the  name  Colony  of  Massa 
chusetts,  or  the  Governor  and  Company  of  Massachusetts, 
or  that  there  should  be  a  modification  of  their  charter  which 
should  acknowledge  the  de  facto  government  in  England. 
These  propositions  at  once  raised  the  issue  of  their  quasi 
independence,  which  had  so  often  been  called  to  their  notice 
by  the  British  government  during  their  history,  and  as  often 

1  Life  of  Agricola,  by  Tacitus,  chap.  xxii. 

2  Mass.  Col.  Rec.,  iii.  226,  227. 


1651]  PETITION   TO   PARLIAMENT  401 

by  tact  and  skillful  diplomacy  harmlessly  laid  to  rest,  while 
the  government  went  on  its  course  unnoticed  and  undis 
turbed.  This  time  they  were  not  dealing  with  Loyalists, 
but  with  Independents  and  Puritans  of  like  faith  with  them 
selves,  and  they  could  and  did  appeal  with  confidence  to 
them,  setting  forth  their  common  interest  in  a  common 
cause,  and  their  own  steadfast  loyalty  to  that  cause  in  their 
record  and  conduct. 

It  is  needless  to  say  that  this  was  effectual.  They  com 
plied  with  neither  request,  but  went  on  their  way  under  their 
charter  unchanged,  and  were  unmolested.  We  cannot  in 
any  other  manner  enter  so  fully  into  their  feelings  and  pur 
poses  as  by  studying  their  petition  to  Parliament  on  this 
question,  signed  by  Endicott,  Dudley,  and  Edward  Rawson, 
secretary,  in  the  name  and  behalf  of  the  General  Court.1 

1  Copy  of  a  petition  to  the  Parliament  in  1651  :  — 

"  To  the  Most  Honorable  the  Parliament  of  the  Commonwealth  of 
England,  the  Supreme  Authority,  Greeting. 

"  The  humble  petition  of  the  General  Court  of  the  Massachusetts 
Bay  in  New  England. 

"  There  coming  to  our  hands,  not  long  since,  a  printed  proclamation 
prohibiting  trade  with  Virginia,  Barbadoes,  Bermuda,  and  Antigua,  of 
which  we  were  observant  (though  to  the  great  loss  and  prejudice  of  the 
whole  Colony),  about  the  end  thereof  we  found,  that  the  Parliament 
had  given  power  to  the  Council  of  State  to  place  governors  and  com 
missioners  (without  exception)  in  all  the  colonies  of  the  English  in 
America,  wherein  we  finding  ourselves  comprehended  as  wrapped  up 
in  one  bundle  with  all  the  other  colonies.  [This  possibility  of  a  foreign 
governor  not  of  their  own  election  and  choice  was  an  embarrassment 
constantly  returning  to  trouble  them,  since  it  would  be  destructive  of 
their  holy  experiment  in  church  and  state.]  Our  case  being  different 
from  all  other  English  colonies  in  America  for  aught  we  know,  or  have 
heard :  Also  since  receiving  information  by  Mr.  Winslow,  our  agent, 
that  it  is  the  Parliament's  pleasure  that  we  should  take  a  new  patent 
from  them  and  keep  our  Courts,  and  issue  our  warrants  in  their  name, 
which  we  have  not  used  either  in  the  late  King's  time  or  since,  not 
being  able  to  discern  the  need  of  such  an  injunction :  These  things 
make  us  doubt  and  fear  what  is  intended  towards  us.  [Their  charter 
was  satisfactory  to  themselves ;  they  did  not  care  to  risk  changes  in  it, 
or  experiments  with  it,  fearing  that  they  might  tend  to  limitation  and 
restraint  of  their  priceless  liberties.]  Let  it  therefore  please  you,  most 


402  THOMAS   DUDLEY  [CH.  xxxm 

Another  attempt  was  made  this  year  to  make  the  colony 
useful  to  England,  by  transporting  it  in  whole  or  in  part  to 

Honorable,  we  humbly  entreat,  to  take  notice,  hereby,  what  were  our 
orders,  upon  what  conditions  and  with  what  authority  we  came  hither, 
and  what  we  have  done  since  our  coming.  We  were  the  first  movers 
and  undertakers  of  so  great  an  attempt,  being  men  able  enough  to  live 
in  England  with  our  neighbors,  and  being  helpful  to  others,  and  not 
needing  the  help  of  any  for  outward  things,  about  three  or  four  and 
twenty  years  since,  seeing  just  cause  to  fear  the  persecution  of  the  then 
bishops  and  high  commission,  for  not  conforming  to  the  ceremonies 
then  pressed  upon  the  consciences  of  those  under  their  power,  we 
thought  it  our  safest  course  to  get  to  this  outside  of  the  world,  out  of 
their  view  and  beyond  their  reach.  Yet  before  we  resolved  upon  so  great 
an  undertaking,  wherein  should  be  hazarded  not  only  all  our  estates, 
but  also  the  lives  of  ourselves  and  our  posterity,  both  in  the  voyage  at 
sea  (wherewith  we  were  unacquainted)  and  in  coming  into  a  wilderness 
uninhabited  (unless  in  some  few  places  by  heathen,  barbarous  Indians), 
we  thought  it  necessary  to  procure  a  patent  from  the  late  King,  who 
then  ruled  all,  to  warrant  our  removal  and  prevent  future  inconven 
ience,  and  so  do.  By  which  patent,  liberty  and  power  was  granted  to 
us  to  live  under  the  government  of  a  governor,  magistrates  of  our  own 
choosing,  and  under  laws  of  our  own  making  (not  being  repugnant  to 
the  laws  of  England),  according  to  which  patent  we  have  governed  our 
selves  above  this  twenty-three  years,  we  coming  hither  at  our  proper 
charges,  without  the  help  of  the  state,  an  acknowledgment  of  the  free 
dom  of  our  goods  from  custom,  and  having  expended,  first  and  last,  in 
our  transportation,  building,  fencing,  war  with  the  Indians,  fortifying, 
subduing  the  earth  in  making  it  fit  for  culture,  divers  hundreds  of  thou 
sand  pounds ;  and  have  now  made  the  place  so  habitable  that  we  are 
enabled  to  live  in  a  mean  and  low  condition,  and  also  to  furnish  other 
places  with  corn,  beef,  pork,  masts,  clapboards,  pipe  staves,  fish,  beaver, 
otter,  and  other  commodities,  and  hoped  that  our  posterity  should  reap 
the  fruit  of  our  labor,  and  enjoy  the  liberties  and  privileges  we  had 
obtained  for  them,  and  for  which  we  have  paid  so  dear,  and  run  so 
great  hazards. 

"  And  for  our  carriage  and  demeanor  to  the  honorable  Parliament 
for  these  ten  years,  since  the  first  beginning  of  your  differences  with 
the  late  King  and  the  war  that  after  ensued,  we  have  constantly  adhered 
to  you,  not  withdrawing  ourselves  in  your  weakest  condition  and  doubt- 
fulest  times,  but  by  our  fasting  and  prayers  for  your  good  success,  and 
our  thanksgiving  after  the  same  was  attained,  in  days  of  solemnity  set 
apart  for  that  purpose,  as  also  by  our  sending  over  useful  men  (others 
also  going  voluntarily  from  us  to  help  you)  who  have  been  of  good  use, 


1651]  PETITION   TO   PARLIAMENT  403 

Ireland,  to  repeople  that  country,  which  Cromwell  had  deso 
lated  by  war,  with  the  thought  that  a  resolute  self-governing 

and  done  good,  acceptable  services  to  the  army,  declaring  to  the  world 
hereby,  that  such  was  the  duty  and  love  we  bear  unto  the  Parliament, 
that  we  were  ready  to  rise  and  fall  with  them ;  for  which  we  have  suf 
fered  the  hatred  and  threats  of  other  English  colonies,  now  in  rebellion 
against  you,  as  also  the  loss  of  divers  of  our  ships  and  goods  taken  by 
the  King's  party  that  is  dead,  by  others  commissioned  by  the  King  of 
Scots,  and  by  the  Portuguese.  All  which,  if  you  shall  please  justly  and 
favorably  to  consider,  we  cannot  but  hope,  but  that  as  you  have  for 
merly  conferred  many  favors  upon  us,  so  it  shall  go  no  worse  with  us 
than  it  did  under  the  late  King ;  and  that  the  frame  of  our  government 
shall  not  be  changed,  and  instead  of  governor  and  magistrates  yearly 
by  ourselves  chosen,  have  other  imposed  upon  us  against  our  wills ; 
wherein  if  our  hopes  should  deceive  us  (which  God  forbid)  we  shall 
have  cause  to  say  we  have  fallen  into  hard  times,  and  sit  down  and 
sigh  out  our  too  late  repentance  for  our  coming  hither,  and  patiently 
bear  what  shall  be  imposed  upon  us  ;  our  adversity  in  such  a  case 
being  the  greater,  because  some  of  us  are  too  old,  and  all  our  estates 
grown  too  weak  (except  a  very  few)  to  seek  out  a  new  corner  of  the 
world  to  inhabit  in.  But,  as  we  said  before,  we  hope  that  this  most 
honorable  Parliament  will  not  cast  such  as  have  adhered  to  you  and 
depended  upon  you,  as  we  have  done,  into  so  deep  despair,  from  the 
fear  of  which  we  humbly  desire  to  be  speedily  freed  by  a  just  and 
gracious  answer,  which  will  freshly  bind  us  to  pray  and  use  all  lawful 
endeavors  for  the  blessing  of  God  upon  you  and  the  present  govern 
ment. 

"  We  will  conclude,  most  Honorable,  our  humble  petition  with  the 
hearty  acknowledgments  of  the  goodness  of  God  towards  us,  who  hath 
put  into  your  hearts  graciously  to  confer  upon  us  so  many  undeserved 
favors  and  great  privileges,  from  time  to  time,  in  helping  on  the  great 
work  of  God  here  amongst  us,  in  taking  off  the  customs  from  us,  in 
enlarging  your  fund  of  bounty  towards  us  for  the  propagating  of  the 
gospel  amongst  the  natives  with  us,  which  work  God  prospereth  beyond 
expectation  in  so  few  years ;  in  doing  us  that  justice  in  stopping  all 
appeals  from  hence  to  you,  in  sending  over  many  servants  to  us,  in 
vouchsafing  to  have  a  tender  care  over  us  upon  all  occasions;  for 
these,  and  for  all  other  manifold  encouragements  received  from  the 
most  honorable  court  of  Parliament,  as  we  are  bound  to  praise  and 
magnify  the  name  of  our  good  God,  so  we  acknowledge  it  our  bounden 
duty,  not  only  to  be  heartily  thankful  to  the  most  honorable  court,  but 
ever  to  pray,  that  the  Lord  (if  it  be  his  good  pleasure)  will  so  establish 
you  the  supreme  authority  of  that  Commonwealth,  that,  all  your  enemies 


404  THOMAS   DUDLEY  [CH.  xxxm 

body  of  Puritans  from  Massachusetts  would  keep  in  subjec 
tion  the  conquered  Irish,  and  possibly  step  by  step  might 
extinguish  the  Roman  idolatry,  as  they  considered  it,  in  that 
beautiful  but  benighted  country. 

The  lord  general,  Oliver  Cromwell,  on  the  2Qth  of  May, 
1650,  embarked  at  Youghall  in  Ireland,  for  England,  after 
an  extraordinary  conquest  of  that  country,  requiring  only 
nine  months,  at  the  end  of  a  war  of  nine  years,  in  which 
country  the  ruins  of  castles,  churches,  monasteries,  and  other 
establishments  yet  remain  as  abundant  memorials  of  the 
havoc  and  desolation  which  he  wrought,  without  mercy,  upon 
that  unfortunate  country  and  people.  The  present  feeling 
towards  Cromwell  and  his  memory  is  well  expressed  by  the 
following  language  of  a  native :  "  So  Ossian  went,  and  he 
wondered  grately  to  see  such  a  many  ould  castles  in  ruins  — 
for  ye  see,  your  honors,  't  was  after  Cromwell  went  through 
the  country  like  a  blast ;  bad  luck  to  his  seed,  breed,  and 
generation  :  Amin  ! " 

The  lord  general  having  offered  to  these  Massachusetts 
people,  forlorn  and  desolate,  in  the  wilderness  of  America, 
an  exchange  of  home  in  the  Emerald  Isle,  already  conquered, 
prostrate,  and  productive  as  a  garden,  was  no  doubt  amazed 
at  their  answer  to  his  tempting  proposition. 

They  praise  his  great  achievements  ;  they  give  to  him 
seven  reasons  why  in  their  opinion  such  a  change  will  not 
tend  to  the  glory  of  God. 

First.  They  came  to  enjoy  the  liberties  of  the  gospel, 
which  they  have  done  for  twenty-three  years,  "  so  that  there 

being  subdued,  you  may  rule  in  peace  and  prosperity  to  his  glory  and 
your  own  comfort  here  on  earth,  and  everlastingly  reign  with  him  in 
glory  hereafter,  which  are  the  earnest  desires  and  fervent  prayers  of 
"  Most  Honorable, 

"  Your  humble  servants, 

"J.  E.        [JOHN  ENDICOTT.] 
T.  D.      [THOMAS  DUDLEY.] 
ED.  R.    [EDWARD  RAWSON,  Secretary.] 
"  In  the  name  and  of  the  Court." 
(Hutchinson,  i.  176,  516;  Mass.  Col.  Rec.,  iv.  72,  73.) 


1651]        NO   REASON   TO   REMOVE   TO   IRELAND  405 

is  no  solid  ground  for  any  defect  therein  that  we  know,  that 
should  occasion  a  remove." 

Second.  God  has  blest  them  with  food,  "  so  that  poverty 
cannot  truly  be  alleged  to  be  a  ground  of  removal." 

Third.  Not  a  more  healthy  place  exists ;  want  of  health  is 
no  ground. 

Fourth.  Peace  abounds ;  war  is  no  cause  of  departure. 

Fifth.  The  ordinances  both  in  church  and  commonwealth 
are  maintained ;  spreading  errors  in  judgment  are  sup 
pressed  ;  therefore  no  defect  in  these. 

Sixth.  Indians  are  converted ;  they  cannot  turn  their 
backs  upon  so  hopeful  and  glorious  a  work. 

Lastly.  "  The  great  noise  and  report  of  so  many  invited, 
and  intending  to  transplant  themselves  into  Ireland,"  have 
injured  the  reputation  of  the  colony  as  to  the  productiveness 
of  its  territory,  and  people  are  not  mindful  of  the  good  gifts 
of  God  to  them  during  these  many  years.  Yet  there  is 
freedom  under  the  law  to  depart ;  they  do  not  hinder,  but 
they  give  them  their  feelings  and  opinions. 

"  Furthermore,  we  humbly  petition  your  Excellence  to  be 
pleased,  to  show  us  what  favor  God  shall  be  pleased  to  direct 
you  unto  on  our  behalf,  to  the  most  Honorable  Parliament, 
unto  whom  we  have  now  presented  a  petition.  The  copy  of 
it  verbatim,  we  are  bold  to  send  herewith,  that,  if  God  so 
please,  we  may  not  be  hindered  in  our  comfortable  proceed 
ings  in  the  work  of  God  here  in  this  wilderness.  [Such  as 
issue  warrants  in  any  name  but  that  of  Massachusetts  or 
suffer  an  amendment  of  the  charter.]  Wherein,  as  for  other 
favors  we  shall  be  bound  to  pray,  that  the  Captain  of  the  host 
of  Israel  may  be  with  you  and  your  whole  army,  in  all  your 
great  enterprises,  to  the  glory  of  God,  the  subduing  of  his 
and  your  enemies,  and  your  everlasting  peace  and  comfort 
in  Jesus  Christ.  In  whom,  we  are,  Right  Honorable, 
"  Your  most  obliged  servants, 

"  J.  E."     [JOHN  ENDICOTT.] 

This  letter  was  on  behalf  of  the  General  Court.1 
1  Hutchinson,  i.  520. 


CHAPTER  XXXIV 

THE  record  informs  us  that  Dudley,  by  order  of  the  Gen 
eral  Court,  has  the  extent  of  his  fifteen  hundred  acres  of 
land  on  the  Concord  River  determined  from  the  bounds 
established  by  himself  and  Winthrop  at  the  "Two  Bro 
thers  "  by  the  river  side.1 

The  Rev.  Mr.  John  Norton  receives  a  recompense  of  re 
ward  of  twenty  pounds,  May  22,  for  smiting  William  Pyn- 
chon's  Book  and  extinguishing  its  heresy. 

The  Court  on  the  same  day  gives  its  attention  to  a  day 
of  fast  and  humiliation,  for  good  and  sufficient  reasons  duly 
set  forth  in  the  order,  as  follows  :  — 

"  This  Court,  taking  into  consideration  how  far  Satan  pre 
vails  amongst  us  in  respect  of  witchcraft,  as  also  by  drawing 
away  some  from  the  truth  to  the  profession  and  practice  of 
strange  opinions,  and  also  considering  the  state  and  condi 
tion  of  England,  Ireland,  and  Scotland,  and  the  great  things 
now  in  hand  there,  conceive  it  necessary  that  there  be  a  day 
of  humiliation  throughout  our  jurisdiction  in  all  the  churches, 
and  do  therefore  desire  and  order,  that  the  eighteenth  day 
of  the  Fourth  Month  [June]  shall  be  set  apart  for  that  end 
and  purpose,  and  that  the  deputies  of  the  several  towns  giv.e 
notice  to  the  several  elders  of  their  churches  of  the  Court's 
desire  herein."  2 

The  Book  of  Discipline,  begun  in  the  Cambridge  synod 
of  1646,  having  been  five  years  under  consideration  and 
criticism  by  all  the  churches,  or  offered  to  them  for  com 
ment,  and  the  objections  which  appeared,  cast  pell-mell  into 
the  alembic  of  the  minds  of  the  elders,  and  having  come 
forth  pure  and  unadulterated,  with  all  its  amendments  and 
1  Mass.  Col.  Rec.,  iii.  247.  *  Ib.,  iii.  239. 


1651-52]  ACT   TO   PROTECT   YOUTH  407 

accrued  perfections  attached,  then  on  the  fourteenth  day  of 
October,  1651,  received  the  testimony  of  the  Court  "that 
for  the  substance  thereof  it  is  that  we  have  practiced  and  do 
believe."  * 

"  To  the  end  that  good  and  wholesome  beer  be  brewed,  it 
is  ordered  that  no  person  shall  undertake  the^  calling  or  work 
of  brewing  beer  for  sale,  but  only  such  as  are  known  to  have 
sufficient  skill  and  knowledge  in  the  art  or  mystery  of  a 
brewer."  2 

"  Upon  information  of  divers  loose,  vain,  and  corrupt  per 
sons,  both  such  as  come  from  foreign  parts  and  also  some 
others,  here  inhabiting  and  residing,  which  insinuate  them 
selves  into  the  fellowship  of  the  young  people  of  this  country, 
drawing  them  both  by  night  and  by  day  from  their  calling, 
studies,  honest  occupations,  and  lodging  places,  to  the  great 
dishonor  of  God,  grief  of  their  parents,  masters,  teachers, 
tutors,  guardians,  overseers,  and  such  like,"  it  is  ordered  that 
persons  who  do  such  things  shall  not  go  unpunished.3 

A  controversy  of  considerable  importance  arose  in  relation 
to  baptism,  in  July,  1651.  As  we  have  already  observed, 
the  colony  had  abundant  reason  to  fear  Anabaptists  of  the 
German  or  John  Leyden  sort,  but  they  had  to  deal  now  with 
another  order  of  Baptists,  who  in  a  very  important  particular 
entertained  doctrines  hostile  at  once  to  their  church  and 
state. 

The  Anabaptism  they  had  in  the  past  been  contending 
with  had  a  wicked,  anarchistic  record,  well  known  and  easily 
available  in  resisting  them,  but  the  Baptists  now  confronting 
them  were  men  without  reproach,  while  their  doctrine  of 
baptism  was  subversive  of  the  Puritan  church  constitution, 
and  of  their  ideal  of  citizenship  in  the  state.  The  Puritans 
denied  the  sacrament  of  baptism  to  the  children  of  all  per 
sons  who  were  not  themselves  in  covenant  with  one  of  their 
churches.  But  the  offspring  of  persons  in  such  covenant 
took  a  Christian  inheritance,  as  an  estate  falls  to  an  heir. 
Baptism  was  held  to  be  the  sign  of  admission  to  the  church, 
1  Mass.  Col.  Rec.,  iii.  240.  2  Ib.,  iii.  241.  8  Ib.,  iii.  242. 


408  THOMAS    DUDLEY  [CH.  xxxiv 

the  vehicle  of  God's  grace,  without  actual  faith  except  of 
sponsors,  because  of  the  covenant  and  not  otherwise. 

The  revolutionary  Baptists,  on  the  other  hand,  held  that 
personal  conversion  and  personal  faith  were  essential,  which 
none  but  persons  capable  of  thought  and  meditation  could 
attain  to.  Hence  infant  baptism  was  useless  and  wicked,  a 
remnant  of  church  tradition  and  superstition. 

The  General  Court  has  set  forth  its  complaint  against 
Baptists.  "  Where  the  said  persons  did  in  open  Court  assert 
their  former  practice  to  have  been  according  to  the  mind  of 
God,  .  .  .  with  making  infant  baptism  a  nullity,  and  thereby 
making  us  all  to  be  unbaptized  persons,  and  so  consequently 
no  regular  churches,  ministry,  or  ordinances,  and  also  re 
nouncing  all  our  churches  as  being  so  bad  and  corrupt  that 
they  are  not  fit  to  be  held  communion  with,  denying  to  sub 
mit  to  the  government  of  Christ  in  the  church,  and  enter 
taining  of  those  that  are  under  church  censure,  thereby 
making  the  discipline  of  Christ  in  his  churches  to  be  of  none 
effect  ...  all  which  to  allow,  would  be  the  setting  up  a  free 
school  for  seduction  into  ways  of  error,  and  casting  off  the 
government  of  Christ  Jesus,  in  his  own  appointments,  with 
a  high  hand,  and  opening  a  door  for  all  sorts  of  abomina 
tions  to  come  in  among  us,  not  only  to  the  disturbance  of 
our  ecclesiastical  enjoyments,  but  also  contempt  of  our  civil 
order  and  the  authority  here  established."  1 

The  issue  was  now,  about  July  31,  1651,  raised  against  the 
government  by  the  distinguished  John  Clarke,  of  Newport, 
R.  I.,  John  Crandall,  and  Obadiah  Holmes,  who  appeared  as 
teachers  of  the  heresy  of  baptism  in  Massachusetts,  and  were 
found  guilty  under  the  law,  and  duly  sentenced.  Friends 
paid  the  fines  of  two  of  them,  and  would  have  done  so  for 
Holmes,  but  he  declined  their  generous  assistance,  and  was 
duly  whipped.  It  has  been  argued  that  this  incursion  into 
Massachusetts  by  Clarke  was  to  achieve  fame  as  a  man  per 
secuted  for  righteousness'  sake,  to  be  used  in  England  politi 
cally  against  Coddington,  in  a  contest  which  immediately 
1  Mass.  Col.  Rec.,  iv.  part  ii.  374;  Hutch.  Coll.,  i.  *2i6. 


1651]          THE   BAPTISTS    IN    MASSACHUSETTS  409 

followed  this  one.1  J.  A.  Doyle  scouts  this  as  far-fetched, 
because  no  contemporary  had  ever  discovered  it.  The  char 
acter  of  Clarke  makes  this  unreasonable.  But  distance  often 
enables  one,  with  a  better  perspective  and  greater  knowledge 
of  facts,  to  see  what  was  unobserved  by  persons  in  the  con 
flict. 

Public  sentiment  has  gone  strongly  against  the  Puritans 
in  our  humane  and  compassionate  era.  But  no  unprejudiced 
person  can  read  the  above  story  of  the  encounter  of  the  gov 
ernment  with  these  men,  as  stated  by  it,  and  not  feel  that 
the  Puritan  had  every  reason  to  regard  their  holy  experiment 
of  government,  and  their  most  sacred  church  organization, 
in  real  danger  of  being  overrun  and  destroyed.  Indeed, 
everything  that  they  had  struggled  for  in  this  wilderness 
was  to  be  blotted  out  unless  they  conquered  in  this  battle. 
Neither  was  the  war  their  own  ;  it  was,  in  their  judgment, 
the  conflict  of  light  with  darkness,  Christ  with  Belial. 

The  Puritans  were  therefore  persecuted  in  this  onset. 
The  three  men,  unless  impelled  by  conscience,  which  we  do 
not  deny,  might  retire  or  never  have  appeared,  but  the  gov 
ernment  had  to  stand  its  ground  and  take  the  shock,  or 
perish.  As  Abraham  Lincoln  said 2  to  the  erring  South, 
"  You  have  no  oath  registered  in  heaven  to  destroy  the 
government,  while  I  shall  have  the  most  solemn  one  to  pre 
serve,  protect,  and  defend  it."  While  this  is  true,  we  may, 
and  ought  to  say,  that  it  is  the  duty  of  all  to  obey  the  voice 
of  God,  and  if  the  three  worthies  were  under  the  higher  law, 
thrones,  principalities,  and  powers  ought  to  be  no  hindrance 
to  them,  and  martyrdom  a  holy  privilege.  God  pity  them 
both  and  pity  us  all,  who  have  to  contend  blindly,  seeing 
through  a  glass  darkly,  no  matter  how  certain  we  are  that 
we  see  clearly. 

Clarke  had  an  offer  of  disputation  not  open  and  satisfac 
tory,  but  it  interests  us,  for  Thomas  Dudley's  signature  is 
among  the  others,  dated  the  nth  of  Sixth  Month,  165 1.3 

1  Palfrey,  ii.  351.  2  First  Inaugural  Address,  1861. 

3  Backus's  Hist.  Baptists,  i.  185.     The  Right  Rev.  Jeremy  Taylor 


4io  THOMAS   DUDLEY  [CH.  xxxiv 

The  General  Court  is  much  disturbed  again  respecting 
extravagance  in  dress.  "  Although  we  acknowledge  it  to  be 
a  matter  of  much  difficulty,  in  regard  of  the  blindness  of 
men's  minds  and  the  stubbornness  of  their  wills,  to  set  down 
exact  rules  to  confine  all  sorts  of  persons,  yet  we  cannot  but 
account  it  our  duty  to  commend  unto  all  sorts  of  persons  a 
sober  and  moderate  use  of  those  blessings  which  beyond  our 
expectations  the  Lord  hath  been  pleased  to  afford  to  us  in 
this  wilderness,  and  also  to  declare  our  utter  detestation  and 
dislike  that  men  or  women  of  mean  condition,  education,  and 
callings  should  take  upon  themselves  the  garb  of  gentlemen, 
by  wearing  of  gold  or  silver  lace,  or  buttons,  or  points  at 
their  knees,  to  walk  in  great  boots ;  or  women  of  the  same 
rank  to  wear  silk  or  tiffany  hoods  or  scarfs,  which  though 
allowable  to  persons  of  greater  estates  or  more  liberal  educa 
tion,  yet  we  cannot  but  judge  it  intolerable  in  persons  of 
such  like  condition."  It  is  therefore  ordered  by  the  Court 
that  people  shall  dress  according  to  their  means,  education, 
and  rank,  with  many  particulars  respecting  the  same. 

This  has  a  special  interest  for  us  because  we  can  already 
discern  the  dissolving  in  this  democratic  atmosphere,  this 
new  social  life,  of  the  outward  emblems  and  distinctions  of 
ranks  and  orders  and  of  previous  conditions  of  servitude, 
arising  from  generations  of  poverty,  or  ignorance,  or  plebeian 
extraction.  The  offenders  here,  the  law-makers,  not  so 
rapidly,  however,  for  they  had  little  or  nothing  to  gain,  were 
being  ushered  into  hitherto  unknown  liberty,  and  had  caught 
a  foregleam  of  the  song  of  Burns  :  — 

said,  in  1647,  "There  may  be  no  toleration  inconsistent  with  the  public 
good.  .  .  .  And  therefore  here  they  are  to  be  restrained  from  preaching 
such  doctrine,  if  they  mean  to  preserve  their  government,  and  the 
necessity  of  the  thing  will  justify  the  lawfulness  of  the  thing.  If  they 
think  it  to  themselves,  that  cannot  be  helped,  so  long  it  is  innocent  as 
much  as  concerns  the  public;  but  if  they  preach  it,  they  may  be 
accounted  authors  of  all  the  consequent  inconveniences,  and  punished 
accordingly.  No  doctrine  that  destroys  government  is  to  be  endured." 
(Discourse  of  the  Liberty  of  Prophesying,  §  19,  Works  of  Jeremy 
Taylor,  v.  589,  590.) 


1651]         THE   LAST   TIME   DEPUTY   GOVERNOR  411 

"  Is  there  for  honest  poverty 

That  hangs  his  head,  an'  a'  that  ? 
The  coward  slave,  we  pass  him  by  — 

We  dare  be  poor  for  a'  that ! 
For  a*  that,  an'  a'  that : 

Our  toils  obscure,  an'  a'  that, 
The  rank  is  but  the  guinea's  stamp, 

The  man  's  the  gowd l  for  a'  that." 

The  United  States  has,  from  its  first  settlement,  been  the 
retreat  of  the  oppressed  of  all  nations  and  races  ;  men  have 
been  leveled  up  and  down  to  a  common  honorable  citizen 
ship,  where  men  of  light  complexion,  at  least,  were  equal 
before  God  and  the  law. 

Education  has  been  the  barrier  against  •  aristocracy,  aided 
by  the  free  alienation  of  land  and  the  unbounded  domain  open 
to  all.  Here  for  many  years  an  Arcadian  simplicity,  purity 
in  morals,  and  fraternal  equal  fellowship  existed,  rights  of 
persons  and  of  property  were  respected,  homes  needed  no 
defense  by  day,  and  doors  were  not  bolted  by  night. 

It  was  determined  by  the  Court  that  blasphemous  expres 
sions  uttered  in  mid-ocean,  half  way  to  England,  were  beyond 
the  jurisdiction  of  the  Court.2 

The  annual  election  was  held  in  Boston,  May  22,  1652,  at 
which  Endicott  was  chosen  governor,  and  Dudley,  for  the 
thirteenth  and  last  time,  deputy  governor.  He  had,  during 
the  twenty-two  years  of  his  being  in  the  colony,  been  either 
in  the  first  or  second  office  in  the  gift  of  the  people  for 
seventeen  years,  and  a  magistrate  all  the  time,  and  an  over 
seer  of  Harvard  College  from  its  foundation.  He  was  now 
seventy-six  years  old,  and  having  endured  many  hardships  it 
was  right  that  he  should  have  a  brief  respite  from  care  and 
duty  before  his  final  departure,  and  that  he  should  relinquish 
his  hold  upon  the  helm  of  state,  committing  it  into  the  hands 
of  his  successors. 

The  Court  at  this  session  made  a  statute  affirming  its  faith 
in  the  Bible,  and  its  purpose  to  punish  all  persons  who  should 
be  guilty  of  denying  its  genuineness  or  authority. 
1  Gold.  2  Mass.  Hist.  Coll.,  iii.  257. 


4i2  THOMAS   DUDLEY  [CH.  xxxiv 

"  The  Holy  Scriptures  of  the  Old  and  New  Testament 
being  written  by  the  Prophets,  Apostles,  and  holy  men  of 
God,  inspired  by  the  Holy  Ghost,  containing  in  them  the 
infallible  and  whole  will  of  God,  which  he  purposed  to  make 
known  to  mankind,  both  for  his  own  worship  and  service, 
and  also  for  the  instruction,  obedience,  faith,  and  salvation  of 
man,  which  yet  by  heretics  in  former  ages,  and  now  of  late 
by  others,  have  been  oppugned  and  denied  so  to  be,  which  if 
connived  at,  would  manifestly  tend  to  the  overthrow  of  all 
true  religion  and  salvation,  for  the  prevention  of  so  heinous 
a  crime,  it  is  therefore  hereby  ordered  and  enacted,"  that 
such  persons  shall  be  punished  as  therein  set  forth.1 

We  must  esteem  it  fortunate  that  Dudley,  so  near  the  end 
of  his  career,  united  with  his  associates  in  this  testimony 
to  the  Bible,  which  had  been  their  great  statute  book,  the 
source,  higher  than  the  English  common  law,  whence  they 
had  drawn  most  of  their  Body  of  Liberties.  By  this  also 
they  had  been  guided  in  the  wilderness,  when  the  way  was 
doubtful  and  their  charter  gave  no  light  to  them,  in  the  crea 
tion  and  government  of  a  state  which  was  to  be  a  beacon 
light  in  civilization  for  centuries. 

If  by  theocracy  it  is  intended  that  the  exercise  of  political 
authority  in  Massachusetts  was  by  priests,  as  representing 
the  Deity,  it  is  an  error  clear  and  certain.  The  ministers 
were  totally  excluded  from  direct  political  place  or  power. 
They  were  called  as  scientific  experts  sometimes,  indeed 
often,  to  declare  the  meaning  of  the  written  word  as  applied 
to  the  case  in  issue.  The  executive  of  a  State  may  require 
the  Supreme  Court  to  interpret  statutes ;  no  other  body  is 
so  well  qualified  to  do  that  service.  But  it  would  hardly  be 
correct  to  say  that  the  executive  with  his  council,  the  Senate 
and  House,  or  legislature,  and  all  other  departments  were 
set  aside  while  the  Supreme  Court  governed  the  common 
wealth.  We  know  very  well  that  Dudley  and  others  did  not 
hesitate  to  tell  the  ministers  to  mind  their  calling  when  they 
exceeded  their  professional  duties. 

1  Mass.  Col.  Rec.,  iii.  259. 


1652]    COINAGE   OF   MONEY   IN   MASSACHUSETTS       413 

If  by  theocracy  is  meant  a  Christian  government  in  which 
God  reigns,  and  his  will  is  done,  we  hope  it  is  still  the  sort 
of  government  which  the  American  people  confides  in  and 
desires  above  all  things.  God  is  not  named  in  the  Consti 
tution,  neither  need  he  be,  but  it  is  important  that  he  be 
reverenced  as  surely  by  the  citizens  of  our  country  to-day  as 
by  the  Massachusetts  fathers,  and  that  a  sense  of  responsi 
bility  to  the  Divine  Governor  of  all  things  be  instilled  in 
childhood,  to  create  citizens  who  will  be  obedient  to  law  and 
duty. 

The  righteousness  of  the  Old  Testament  and  the  gospel 
of  the  New  Testament  are  as  essential  to  government  to-day 
as  ever.  Political  corruption  stalks  away  with  bated  breath 
where  the  golden  rule  prevails. 

The  reliance  of  the  General  Court  upon  the  infallible 
literalism  of  the  Old  Testament,  the  Biblical  commonwealth, 
was  an  error  which  a  greater  light  and  "  higher  criticism  " 
have  made  evident  to  us.  The  open  Bible  had  only  just 
reached  the  people  in  their  day.  But  their  faith  in  the 
Eternal,  and  that  the  Bible  and  a  devout  spirit  were  the  sure 
and  only  ways  to  know  his  will,  were  essential  facts  which 
they  accepted  and  acted  upon  with  full  assurance. 

The  colony  undertook  this  year  the  coinage  of  money,  a 
thing  it  is  said  never  attempted  by  a  colony  before.  This 
was  little  regarded  at  the  time  in  England,  or  by  the  British 
government ;  they  had  quite  enough  on  their  hands  at  home. 
But  when,  finally,  proceedings  were  undertaken  by  charges 
of  Randolph,  which  vacated  the  charter  of  Massachusetts  in 
1684,  he  was  careful  to  say  in  item  thirteen,  "They  persist 
in  coining  money,  though  they  had  asked  forgiveness  for  that 
offense."  l 

The  coining  of  money  has  always  been  a  sovereign  pre 
rogative,  and  this  is  thought  to  be  the  first  instance  in  his 
tory  of  such  colonial  action ;  and  no  one  act  of  the  colony 
more  definitely  asserts  their  assumed  and  growing  independ 
ence  of  the  mother  country  than  this.  It  is  not  quite  clear 
1  Palfrey,  iii.  376,  note. 


414  THOMAS   DUDLEY  [CH.  xxxiv 

to  us  why  certain  shilling  pieces  of  New  England,  as  repre 
sented  in  the  "Illustrated  History  of  the  United  States 
Mint  at  Philadelphia,"  by  George  G.  Evans,  should  bear  the 
date  1650,  if  the  first  shillings  were  coined,  as  it  is  claimed, 
at  the  house  of  John  Hull,  in  Sheaffe  Street,  Boston,  in 
1652.  These  were  the  old  pine-tree  shillings.  Is  it  possible 
that  New  England  shillings  were  coined  in  the  Bermudas  in 
1650  and  known  as  "  Sommer  money,"  as  all  seem  to  agree 
that  the  first  coinage  in  this  country  was  in  1652  ? 

The  wife  of  this  John  Hull  was  Judith,  the  daughter  of 
Edmund  Quincy,  after  whom  Point  Judith  in  Rhode  Island 
was  named,  and  their  daughter,  Hannah  Hull,  received  from 
her  father  for  her  wedding  portion  her  weight  in  pine-tree 
shillings,  or  .£30,000. 

If  the  first  shillings  were  made  in  the  Bermudas  in  1650, 
it  was  the  administration  of  Dudley  which  first  undertook 
to  supply  the  colony  with  the  much-needed,  pure  silver  coin, 
which  we  are  not  yet  prepared  to  declare  ;  but  we  think  his 
courage  was  equal  to  it,  if  he  deemed  the  need  sufficient  and 
the  action  wise.  At  any  rate,  there  the  shillings  are  with 
1650  clearly  on  their  face,  and  no  account  of  them  yet  found 
in  the  authorities.1 

"  Forasmuch  as  divers  inhabitants  within  this  jurisdiction, 
who  have  long  continued  amongst  us  receiving  protection 
from  this  government,  have,  as  we  are  informed,  uttered 
offensive  speeches  whereby  their  fidelity  to  this  government 
may  justly  be  suspected,  and  also  that  divers  strangers  of 
foreign  parts,  of  whose  fidelity  we  have  not  the  assurance 
which  is  commonly  required  by  all  governments,  it  is  there 
fore  ordered  "  that  the  oath  of  fidelity  be  administered  to 
such.2 

The  Court  appoints  a  committee,  under  God's  blessing,  to 
be  a  council  to  consider  of  all  sorts  of  trading  and  to  consult 
about  the  best  ways  of  improving  the  same.3  The  militia 

1  Mass.  Col.  Rec.,  iv.  84,  104;  G.  G.  Evans's  U.  S.  Mint,  57;  S.  G. 
Drake's  Hist,  and  Antiquities  of  Boston,  329. 

2  Mass.  Col.  Rec.,  iii.  263.  8  Ib.,  iii.  267. 


1652]  SUPPORT  OF   THE   COLLEGE  415 

regulations  were  carefully  established  in  1652.  "  The  hus 
band  of  Elizabeth  Fairfield,  being  long  since  judged  for  some 
miscarriage  of  his  to  wear  a  rope  about  his  neck  during  the 
Court's  pleasure,  upon  her  request  to  this  Court,  hath  liberty 
granted  him  to  lay  the  rope  aside." 

Harvard  College  seeks  money  from  England. 

"  Mrs.  Dorothy  Pester,  whose  husband  went  into  England 
some  ten  years  since,  and  was  never  to  this  day  heard  of, 
upon  her  petition  to  this  Court,  hath  liberty  granted  her 
to  marry  when  God  by  his  providence  shall  afford  her  an 
opportunity."  1 

"  A  declaration  concerning  the  advancement  of  learning 
in  New  England  by  the  General  Court.  If  it  should  be 
granted  that  learning,  namely  skill  in  the  tongues  and  liberal 
arts,  is  not  absolutely  necessary  for  the  being  of  a  common 
wealth  and  churches,  yet  we  conceive  that  the  judgment  of 
the  godly  wise,  it  is  beyond  all  question,  not  only  laudable, 
but  necessary  for  the  being  of  the  same.  And  although 
New  England  (blessed  be  God)  is  competently  furnished 
(for  this  present  age)  with  men  in  place,  and,  upon  occasion 
of  death  or  otherwise,  to  make  supply  of  magistrates,  asso 
ciates  in  Courts,  physicians,  and  officers  in  the  common 
wealth,  and  of  teaching  elders  in  churches,  yet  for  the  better 
discharge  of  our  trust  for  the  next  generation,  and  so  to 
posterity,  being  the  first  founders  do  wear  away  apace,  and 
that  it  grows  more  and  more  difficult  to  fill  places  of  most 
eminence  as  they  are  empty  or  wanting,  and  this  Court 
finding  by  manifest  experience,  that  though  the  number  of 
scholars  at  our  college  doth  increase,  yet  as  soon  as  they  are 
grown  up,  ready  for  public  use,  they  leave  the  country,  and 
seek  for  and  accept  of  employment  elsewhere,  so  that  if 
timely  provision  be  not  made  it  will  tend  much  to  the  dis 
paragement,  if  not  to  the  ruin  of  this  commonwealth.  It  is 
therefore  ordered  "  that  collections  of  money  be  taken  to 
support  the  president  of  Harvard  and  certain  fellows  and 
poor  scholars.2 

1  Mass.  Col.  Rec.,  iii.  277.  2  Ib.,  iii.  279,  280. 


416  THOMAS   DUDLEY  [CH.  xxxiv 

It  was  ordered  that  verbal  contracts  for  the  sale  of  houses 
and  land  must  be  discontinued,  and  such  bargains  henceforth 
be  by  deed  in  writing,  acknowledged  and  recorded.1  A 
patent  right  is  issued  by  the  Court  to  John  Clarke  for  three 
years,  on  an  "  invention  for  saving  of  firewood  and  warming 
of  rooms  with  little  cost." 

"  This  Court  taking  into  consideration  sundry  reasons  why 
the  churches  should  set  apart  a  solemn  day  of  humiliation, 
especially  for  three  reasons  following :  The  loss  of  many  per 
sons  by  unwonted  diseases  ;  secondly,  in  respect  of  unusual 
storms  and  continued  rains  ;  thirdly,  want  of  supply  of  meet 
persons  for  public  service  ;  fourthly,  for  the  worldly-minded- 
ness,  oppression,  and  hard-heartedness  feared  to  be  amongst 
us ;  as  also  in  regard  of  England  and  the  wars  there,  the 
increase  of  heresies  and  errors,  &c.,  and  that  God  would  give 
us  favor  in  the  hearts  of  the  Parliament,  &c.  In  conclusion, 
that  God  would  supply  us  with  such  commodities  as  are 
wanting,  &c.  This  day  to  be  observed,  loth  :  Qth  next."  2 

It  seems  that  one  Powell  was  thought  by  the  Court  to  be 
wanting  in  education  to  preach  or  exercise  his  gift  in  Boston, 
and  his  case  reveals  the  fact  that  New  England  had  testified 
to  the  English  Puritans  respecting  their  neglect  of  learning, 
for  the  Court  says,  "  and  considering  the  humor  of  the  times 
in  England  inclining  to  discourage  learning,  against  which 
we  have  borne  testimony,  this  Court,  in  our  petition  to  the 
Parliament,  which  we  should  contradict  if  we  should  approve 
of  such  proceedings  amongst  ourselves,"  as  allowing  an  un 
educated  man  to  occupy  a  pulpit. 

The  following  seems  to  be  as  funny  as  an  Irish  bull  of  the 
first  quality.  "Martha  Brent  on  desiring  an  Irish  boy  and 
girl,  about  the  age  of  twelve  years,  for  servants,  hath  her 
request  granted,  so  as  the  parties  are  proved  before  two 
magistrates  to  be  born  of  English  parents."  3 

The  name  of  Thomas  Dudley  disappears  from  the  record 
in  the  year  1653,  excepting  the  following  entry  in  honor  of 
his  memory :  — 

1  Mass.  Col.  Rec.,  iii.  280.         2  Ib.,  Hi.  287,  288.         *  Ib.,  iii.  294. 


1653]  DEATH   AND   BURIAL  417 

"  It  is  ordered  by  this  Court,  that  the  treasurer  shall  pay 
unto  the  present  secretary  six  pounds  for  powder  sold  unto 
the  captain  of  the  castle,  expended  at  Mr.  Dudley's  funeral, 
and  that,  according  to  a  former  agreement  with  him,  both 
for  price  and  pay,  this  to  be  paid  out  of  this  country  rate 
now  in  being,  and  the  captain  of  the  castle  is  to  take  up  his 
bond."  i 

Dudley  died  Sunday  night,  July  31,  1653,  and  his  funeral 
took  place  at  Roxbury  on  the  6th  of  August  following.2  He 
was  in  the  seventy-seventh  year  of  his  age. 

He  was  buried  in  one  of  the  oldest  cemeteries  in  New 
England,  at  the  corner  of  Washington  and  Eustis  streets,  in 
Roxbury. 

"  On  entering  the  cemetery  the  first  tomb  that  meets  the 
eye,  and  the  one  upon  the  highest  ground,  is  covered  with 
an  oval  slab  of  white  marble  bearing  the  name  of  Dudley. 
In  it  were  laid  the  remains  of  Governors  Thomas  and  Joseph 
Dudley,  Chief  Justice  Paul  Dudley,  and  Colonel  William 
Dudley,  a  prominent  political  leader  a  century  and  a  half  ago. 
The  original  inscription  plate  is  said  to  have  been  of  pewter, 
and  to  have  been  taken  out  and  run  into-  bullets  by  the  pro 
vincial  soldiers  during  the  siege  of  Boston." 

Dudley  has  suffered  in  his  reputation  by  the  writers  of 
poetry,  and,  strange  to  say,  without  any  intention  on  their 
part  to  defame  his  memory,  but  to  eulogize  him.  The  most 
noted  of  these  effusions  is  as  follows  :  — 

"  Here  lies  Thomas  Dudley,  that  trusty  old  stud, 
A  bargain's  a  bargain,  and  must  be  made  good." 

These  lines  no  doubt  came  from  the  original  inscription  on 
the  pewter  plate  on  his  tomb. 

Most  persons  who  read  them  receive  two  unfortunate  im 
pressions  respecting  their  meaning,  and  assuming  that  they 
express  the  opinions  of  his  contemporaries,  do  not  care  to 

1  Mass.  Col.  Rec.,  iii.  329. 

2  Rec.  of  Rev.  S.  Danforth  of  the  First  Church  in  Roxbury;  New 
England  Genealog.  and  Antiq.  Reg.,  xxxiv.  86. 


418  THOMAS   DUDLEY  [CH.  xxxiv 

know  much  more  about  him.  Furthermore,  these  lines  have 
long  been  deemed  necessary  to  a  good  description  of  Dud 
ley.  The  first  thought  which  the  ordinary  reader  gains  is 
that  Dudley  was  such  a  brute  of  a  man  that,  by  metaphoi, 
he  is  described  as  a  horse,  ugly  and  ungovernable.  The  sec 
ond  line  suggests  the  character  of  Shylock,  —  a  man  who 
entangles  his  fellow-men  in  unjust  contracts,  as  spiders  snare 
insects  in  webs,  intent  upon  their  destruction  without  mercy. 
Such  interpretation  is  an  error. 

Mr.  James  Savage,  in  his  note  on  these  lines,1  says  they 
were  the  work  of  Governor  Belcher.2  They  are  not  the 

1  Winthrop,  i.  *SQ. 

2  Jonathan   Belcher  was  governor  of  Massachusetts  and  of  New 
Hampshire  from  1730  to  1741.     The  States  were  then  united.     He  was 
governor  of  New  Jersey  in  1747.     He  was  born  in  1 68 1,  twenty-eight 
years  after  the  death  of  Governor  Dudley,  and  the  probability  of  his 
having  written  his  epitaph,  being  without  personal  knowledge  of  him, 
is  certainly  very  small.     It  would  not  have  been  done  by  him  before  he 
was  twenty  years  old ;  and  if  he  did  thus  write  it  after  the  lapse  of  half 
a  century,  it  ought  to  have  no  weight  or  importance.     But  his  use  of  it 
seems  to  carry  abundant  evidence  that  he  did  not  write  it,  and  leave  a 
reasonable  assurance  that  he  is  quoting  from  another.     He  no  doubt 
quoted  from  the  ancient  inscription  on  Dudley's  tomb  in  Roxbury. 

Belcher  was  in  1732  an  extensive  owner  in  the  Simsbury  copper 
mines,  now  in  East  Granby,  Conn.,  about  eighteen  miles  northwest  of 
Hartford.  These  mines  are  worthy  of  a  little  note.  The  company,  it 
is  said,  was  organized  under  the  first  charter  for  mining  in  this  country. 
Belcher,  it  is  said,  disbursed  in  this  enterprise  about  sixty  thousand 
dollars.  Trumbull  says  that  "  the  mine  at  Simsbury  was  dug  until  the 
veins  of  copper  ceased.  A  prodigious  cavity  was  made,  which  has 
since  become  the  famous  prison  called  Newgate.  This  has  been  of 
much  greater  advantage  to  the  State  than  all  the  copper  dug  out  of  it." 
(Trumbull's  Conn.,  ii.  45.)  It  is  claimed  that  the  first  coinage  of  money 
in  this  country  was  accomplished  at  this  mine ;  but  doubtless  the  Mas 
sachusetts  pine-tree  shilling  in  1652  was  earlier.  The  mine  was  trans 
formed  to  a  prison  about  1750.  It  was  one  of  the  excuses  in  all  the 
colonies  for  their  unusual  punishments,  that  they  had  no  places  of  suf 
ficient  strength  to  secure  and  retain  prisoners.  This  use  of  this  dismal 
place  marks  at  that  period  a  change  in  the  treatment  of  criminals  in 
Connecticut.  Here,  deep  down  into  the  earth,  were  sent  in  the  Revolu 
tionary  War  the  Royalists,  some  of  the  best  men  of  Connecticut,  who 


1653]  EULOGISTIC   LINES   ON   HIS   TOMB  419 

composition  of  Governor  Belcher.1  He  quoted  them  in 
admiration  of  the  illustrious  character  of  Dudley,  whom  he 
esteemed  as  reliable  in  his  generation  as  Washington  was 
regarded  in  a  later  age.  Belcher,  because  he  was  weary  with 
treacherous  servants  and  with  breaches  of  contracts,  which 
ought  to  be  sacred  (indeed,  the  Constitution  of  the  United 
States  took  the  power  away  from  sovereign  States  even  to 
impair  existing  contracts),  mentions  as  an  illustration  that 
Dudley  was  accounted  worthy  to  have  these  memorable  lines 
placed  on  his  tomb,  which  Belcher  conceived  to  be  in  the 
highest  degree  eulogistic.  Let  us  then  read  the  lines  as 
he  interpreted  them.  "  Stud,"  as  here  used,  means  pillar, 
support,  or  prop.  "  The  church  of  the  living  God,  the  pillar 
and  the  ground  of  truth." 2  The  word  had  at  that  time  a 
very  appropriate  use  as  the  trunk,  stem,  or  stick  of  a  tree. 

had  long  had  the  confidence  of  the  home  government.  (Trumbull's 
Conn.,  ii.  40-45;  Lippinc.,  xxvii.  290  ;  Mag.  Amer.  Hist.,  xv.  321.) 

It  appears  in  the  Belcher  Papers,  Mass.  Hist.  Coll.,  6th  series,  vi. 
part  i.  450,  459,  464,  466,  467,  471,  472,  474,  478,  479,  that  Belcher,  dur 
ing  the  years  1731  and  1732,  at  which  time  he  was  governor  of  Massa 
chusetts,  and  resided  in  Boston,  was  in  constant  trouble  with  the  labor 
ers  in  Simsbury  mine.  He  charges  them  very  often  with  villainy,  theft, 
and  dishonor.  It  seems  to  be  a  perpetual  story  of  bad  faith  and  failure 
to  perform  contracts,  and  in  his  extreme  vexation  with  the  treacherous 
miners  he  wrote  a  letter  to  Joseph  Pitkin,  an  officer  or  agent  at  the 
mine,  from  which  we  make  the  following  extracts  :  He  writes  of  the 
"  villainy  of  the  men.  .  .  .  My  consideration  was  not  whether  they  could 
live  by  the  bargain,  but  whether  I  could.  I  knew  it  was  not  my  busi 
ness  to  maintain  a  crew  of  rogues  to  my  ruin.  .  .  .  And  another  thing, 
you  have  practiced  to  my  hurt,  viz. :  too  great  a  fear  and  compassion 
least  you  should  hurt  poor  men  ;  and  this  is  hardly  justifiable  while  you 
acted  for  another,  and  not  for  yourself.  A  man  may  do  as  he  pleases 
for  himself ;  but  where  a  man  is  in  trust  for  another,  in  matters  of  deal 
ing,  strict  justice  is  the  rule,  without  any  consideration  of  the  circum 
stances  of  the  parties.  It  was  wrote  over  Governor  Thomas  Dudley's 
tomb."  And  he  then  quotes  the  lines  given  on  page  417,  placing 
quotation  marks  over  them.  Here  is  the  strongest  evidence  that  he 
was  not  the  author ;  since  he  quotes  the  lines,  he  does  not  claim  them, 
but  distinctly  quotes  in  1732  from  another,  —  he  says  from  the  tomb. 

1  See  Belcher  Papers,  479.  2  i  Tim.  iii.  15. 


420  THOMAS   DUDLEY  [CH.  xxxiv 

Dudley  was  one  of  the  trunks  which  held  up  the  goodly  tree 
of  the  Massachusetts  commonwealth  during  its  first  twenty- 
three  years. 

Edmund  Spenser,  who  was  a  contemporary  with  Dudley, 
wrote :  — 

"  Seest  not  thilke  same  Hawthorne  studde, 
How  bragly  it  beginnes  to  budde, 
And  utter  his  tender  head  ?  "  1 

The  word  "  trusty "  means  a  reliable  pillar,  safe  in  an 
emergency,  as  a  trusty  servant  or  friend.  The  upright  post 
was  really  a  good  metaphor  to  suggest  the  firm,  upright,  and 
reliable  character  of  Dudley.  Governor  Belcher  affirmed 
that  so  great,  good,  and  exemplary  a  man  as  Dudley  held  to 
the  sacred  and  inviolable  obligations  of  contracts,  and  that 
without  this  no  business  could  be  transacted,  for  no  man 
could  otherwise  make  business  calculations ;  there  could  be 
no  such  thing  as  credit,  the  present  foundation  of  all  the 
business  in  the  world.  Dudley  had  the  distinguished  honor, 
when  he  had  departed  this  life,  to  have  some  appreciative 
friends,  in  memory  of  his  great  example,  tenderly  and  rever 
ently  place  those  lines  upon  his  tomb  2  as  a  monumental  trib 
ute  to  the  stability  and  integrity  of  his  character,  that  all 
the  world  hereafter  might  know  of  his  illustrious  record,  and 
imitate  it.  These  were  the  thoughts  of  Governor  Belcher, 
when  in  the  next  generation  he  pointed  out  the  notable  ex 
ample  of  Governor  Dudley  to  his  irresponsible  associates. 
They  have  in  recent  years  been  read  backwards,  and  their 
meaning  distorted  from  homage  and  eulogy  to  odium  and 
reproach. 

1  Shep.  Cal.  March. 

2  Charles  M.  Ellis,  in  the  History  of  Roxbury,  p.  102,  relates  that 
"  It  is  said  there  was  on  his  tomb  in  the  graveyard  at  the  corner  of 
Eustis  and  Washington  streets  (Roxbury)  a  leaden  plate  that  had  an 
epitaph  upon  it  [consisting  of  the  lines  under  consideration],  which  was 
torn  off  and  run  up  into  bullets  in  the  Revolution."     If  the  tradition  had 
foundation,  the  seeming  desecration  was  the  work  of  American  patriots, 
in  a  moment  of  pressing  need,  in  the  defense  of  freedom  in  Massachu 
setts,  and  the  act  was  hallowed  by  the  cause  and  the  hour. 


1653]       REV.   NATHANIEL   ROGERS'S   ENCOMIUM          421 

"Here,  side  by  side  with  the  apostle  Eliot  and  Robert 
Calef,  were  laid  the  Dudleys,  the  Warrens,  and  others  of 
lesser  note."  l 

1  Memorial  Hist,  of  Boston,  i.  418.  Mention  of  Mr.  Dudley's  home 
in  Roxbury  has  already  been  made  in  this  work  (page  258). 

"Within  the  compass  of  this  lustre  [five  years]  was  the  Massachu 
setts  deprived  of  two  eminent  and  worthy  persons,  the  one  in  the  magis 
tracy  [Governor  Dudley],  the  other  in  the  ministry  [Rev.  John  Cotton]  ; 
which  loss  was  the  more  to  be  lamented,  in  that  they  left  neither  of 
them  any  one  in  each  of  their  capacities,  equal  with  themselves. 

"  Mr.  Dudley,  an  ancient  gentleman,  one  of  the  principal  founders 
and  pillars  of  the  Massachusetts  colony,  was  called  from  his  station, 
July  31,  1653,  in  the  77th  year  of  his  age,  eminently  qualified  with  those 
choice  virtues  fit  for  the  discharge  of  the  trust,  to  which  he  was  oft 
called,  and  wherein  he  always  approved  himself  a  lover  of  justice,  and 
friend  of  truth,  an  enemy  of  all  disorder,  and  that  always  bore  a  special 
antipathy  against  all  heresy  and  corrupt  doctrine;  which  made  him 
conclude  his  own  epitaph  with  this  character  of  himself,  '  I  died  no  lib 
ertine  ; '  and  which  gave  occasion  to  a  reverend  person  of  the  clergy 
[Rev.  Nathaniel  Rogers  —  Mather  says  'E.  R.,' (Mag.,  i.  124)  Ezekiel 
Rogers,  but  Hubbard  is  probably  correct ;  he  was  the  son-in-law  of 
Nathaniel,  and  was  contemporary  with  Dudley ;  Nathaniel  was  famous 
for  Latin  poetry,  and  was  Dudley's  pastor  at  Ipswich]  to  honor  him 
with  this  double  encomium,  as  well  of  English  as  Latin  poesy. 

THOMAS  DUDLEY. 

Hold,  mast,  we  dy. 

When  swelling  gusts  of  Antinomian  breath, 
Had  well  nigh  wreck'd  this  little  bark  to  death, 
When  oars  'gan  crack,  and  anchors,  then  we  cry, 
Hold  firm,  brave  mast,  thy  stand,  or  else  we  die. 
Our  orth'dox  mast  did  hold,  we  did  not  die ; 
Our  mast  now  roll'd  by  th'  board  (poor  bark,)  we  cry, 
Courage,  our  pilot,  lives,  who  stills  the  waves, 
Or  midst  the  surges  still  his  bark  he  saves. 

EPITAPHIUM. 

Heluo  librorum,  lectorum  bibliotheca 

Communis,  sacrae  syllabus  historiae. 

Ad  mensam  comes,  hinc  facundus,  rostra  disertus, 

Non  cumulus  verbis,  pondus  acumen  erat, 

Morum  acris  censor,  validus  defensor  amansque, 

Et  sana?,  et  canae,  catholicae  fidei. 

Angli-novi  columen,  summum  decus,  atque  senatus, 

Thomas  Dudleius  conditur  hoc  tumulo.  '    N.  R. 


422  THOMAS   DUDLEY  [CH.  xxxiv 

Mrs.  Catherine  Dudley,  the  widow  of  Governor  Dudley, 
and  eight  of  his  children  survived  him,  as  follows :  Rev. 
Samuel  Dudley,  Mrs.  Anne  Bradstreet,  Mrs.  Patience  Denni- 
son,  Mrs.  Sarah  Pacey,  and  Mrs.  Mercy  Woodbridge,  by  his 
first  wife,  Dorothy ;  and  Mrs.  Deborah  Wade,  Governor 
Joseph  Dudley,  and  Paul  Dudley,  by  his  last  wife  Catherine.1 
He  left,  it  seems,  the  largest  estate  in  Roxbury,  three  hun 
dred  and  fifty-six  acres.2 

[Translation  of  the  above,  as  follows :  A  devourer  of  books,  in  him 
self  a  choice  collector  ;  a  compend  of  sacred  history  ;  a  companion  for 
the  table,  hence  eloquent ;  a  master  of  rhetoric,  not  merely  a  mass  of 
words ;  he  was  weighty,  keen,  a  sharp  censor  of  morals,  a  strong  and 
loving  defender  of  a  rational  and  pure  catholic  faith,  the  sturdiest  sup 
port  and  ornament  of  New  England ;  Thomas  Dudley  lies  buried  within 
this  tomb.] 

"He  was  the  most  resolved  champion  of  the  truth,  above  all  the  gen 
tlemen  in  the  country,  in  the  years  1636  and  1637,  at  which  time  was 
New  England's  crisis;  when  many,  under  pretense  of  crying  up  the 
free  grace  of  God  in  the  work  of  man's  salvation,  had  well-nigh  cash 
iered  all  the  grace  of  God  out  of  their  hearts,  endeavoring  to  vilify  the 
grace  of  sanctification,  that  thereby  they  might  exalt  the  grace  of  justi 
fication."  (Rev.  Wm.  Hubbard's  General  Hist,  of  New  Eng.,  Mass. 
Hist.  Soc.  Coll.,  2d  series,  vi.  chap.  Ixii.  552,  553.) 

These  words  of  Hubbard  have  contributed  unjustly  to  make  Dud 
ley,  single  and  alone,  the  victim  of  Antinomian  vengeance  in  recent 
years. 

An  epitaph  on  Thomas  Dudley  by  his  daughter,  Anne  Bradstreet :  — 

HIS   EPITAPH. 

Within  this  tomb  a  Patriot  lies 

That  was  both  pious,  just  and  wise, 

To  truth  a  shield,  to  right  a  wall, 

To  sectaries  a  whip  and  maul, 

A  magazine  of  history, 

A  prizer  of  good  company, 

In  manners  pleasant  and  severe ; 

The  good  him  lov'd,  the  bad  did  fear, 

And  when  his  time  with  years  was  spent, 

If  some  rejoic'd,  more  did  lament. 

1  Dean  Dudley's  Hist.  Dudley  Family,  i.  276.     See  Appendix  B,  C, 
D,  E,  F,  G,  H,  I. 

2  Early  records  of  Roxbury,  N.  E.  Genealog.  and  Antiq.  Reg.,  ii.  54. 


1653]  WILL  OF  DUDLEY  423 

His  will  was  in  his  own  handwriting,  and  is  duly  recorded 
and  preserved  in  the  Suffolk  probate  office,  Boston,  Mass. 
He  named  his  "worthy  and  beloved  friends,  John  Eliot, 
teacher  of  the  church  at  Roxbury,  and  Samuel  Danforth, 
pastor  of  the  said  church,"  among  his  executors.  He  in 
voked  in  them  that  just  and  equitable  spirit  which  had 
been  the  rule  of  his  life.  He  says  :  "  Entreating  them,  as 
my  last  request,  that  they  will  do  for  me  and  mine  as  I 
would  have  done  for  them  and  theirs  in  the  like  case."  The 
last  codicil  to  this  will  was  only  thirteen  days  before  his 
decease.  But  previous  dates  in  April  and  May  attached  to 
the  will  assure  us  that  he  realized  that  his  departure  was 
near.  He  was  in  office  as  deputy  governor  until  May  18, 
only  two  months  and  thirteen  days  previous  to  his  death, 
and  his  absence  from  office  is  conclusive  evidence  that  he 
was  ill,  or  too  feeble  for  service. 

The  following  lines  from  the  will  are  of  great  public  inter 
est,  like  the  dying  words  of  the  Commander  to  the  Old 
Guard.  Some  persons  will  read  nothing  in  them  but  nar 
rowness  and  bigotry.  It  was  the  day  of  small  things,  but 
it  was  the  seed-sowing,  the  planting,  of  a  nation  possibly  to 
be  greater  than  any  other  in  the  previous  history  of  the 
world :  — 

"For  my  soul  I  commend  it  into  the  hand  of  my  God, 
in  whom  I  have  believed,  whom  I  have  loved,  which  he 
hath  promised  to  receive  in  Jesus  Christ,  my  Redeemer  and 
Saviour,  with  whom  I  desire  ever  to  be,  leaving  this  testi 
mony  behind  me,  for  the  use  and  example  of  my  posterity, 
and  any  other  upon  whom  it  may  work,  that  I  have  hated 
and  do  hate  every  false  way  in  religion,  not  only  the  old 
idolatry  and  superstition  of  Popery,  which  is  wearing  away, 
but  much  more  (as  being  much  worse)  the  new  heresies, 
blasphemies,  and  errors  of  late  sprung  up  in  our  native  coun 
try  of  England,  and  secretly  received  and  fostered  more  than 
I  wish  they  were  here."  This  document,  from  beginning  to 
end,  is  written  in  that  clear,  terse  language  which  well  sus 
tains  his  early  reputation  for  skill  in  drafting  public  papers. 


424  THOMAS   DUDLEY  [CH.  xxxiv 

He  certainly  had  no  superior  in  this  respect  among  his  asso 
ciates  in  the  government.  His  sincere  conviction  of  the 
danger  from  heresy  to  their  work  in  church  and  state  is 
vigorously  and  weightily  stated  here,  in  his  last  appeal  to 
his  countrymen.  Public  sentiment  has  long  been  against 
his  theory  of  the  true  method  of  action  by  which  to  keep  a 
church  and  state  pure  and  safe  ;  a  larger  territory  and  popu 
lation  has  contributed  to  the  change ;  it  welcomes  now,  in 
stead,  free  speech  and  a  free  press,  to  the  very  verge  of  libel 
and  slander,  and  tolerates  nearly  every  doctrine  under  the 
sun,  in  science  and  religion. 

There  is  great  and  ancient  authority  for  letting  both  the 
tares  and  the  wheat  grow  together,  but  there  have  been 
times  when  the  only  possible  way  of  saving  the  wheat  was 
by  violence  and  revolution ;  or,  in  other  words,  a  reversal  in 
public  sentiment  which  set  the  other  way  with  the  force  of 
a  tide  in  the  ocean. 


CONCLUSION 

THE  assumption  which  is  the  groundwork  of  the  Ameri 
can  portion  of  this  biography  of  Thomas  Dudley  is  that  he 
and  the  colony  of  Massachusetts  were  inseparable  during 
the  period  from  1630  to  1653. 

If  Lord  Byron  correctly  said,  — 

"  I  live  not  in  myself,  but  I  become 
Portion  of  that  around  me ; "  1 

if  Lord  Tennyson  properly  affirmed,  — 

"  I  am  a  part  of  all  that  I  have  met ;  "  2 

then  for  stronger,  more  essential  reasons  a  person  may  be 
said  to  be  an  integral  part  of  his  acts,  and  Thomas  Dudley 
inseparable  from  every  important  event  in  this  period  of  the 
history  of  Massachusetts.  His  handiwork,  in  common  with 
that  of  Winthrop  and  others,  lies  at  the  beginning  of 
the  institutions  of  Massachusetts,  and  attended  them  beyond 
the  period  of  her  adolescence  to  the  fixed  development  which 
has  made  her  character  memorable  in  history. 

Neither  he  nor  Winthrop  entertained  the  autocratic  idea 
of  Louis  XIV.  of  France,  when  he  exclaimed,  "I  am  the 
state,"  although  many  persons  have  seemed  to  regard  Win 
throp  as  such.  This  was  their  work  in  company  with  their 
associates,  among  whom  they  were  the  two  most  conspicu 
ous. 

There  is  an  inscription  in  Latin  to  Sir  Christopher  Wren, 
the  architect  of  Saint  Paul's  Cathedral,  in  London,  over  its 
north  porch,  ending  with  these  words,  which  comprehend 

1  Childe  Harold,  chap.  iii. 
*  Ulysses. 


426  THOMAS   DUDLEY 

his  merit  and  his  fame  :  "  If  thou  seekest  his  monument,  look 
around."  The  greatest  orator  Massachusetts  ever  had  (we 
might  as  truly  say,  or  any  other  modern  state)  in  a  memor 
able  moment,  when  her  character  was  assailed  in  the  national 
capitol,  exclaimed,  "There  she  is.  Behold  her,  and  judge 
for  yourselves.  There  is  her  history  ;  the  world  knows  it  by 
heart.  The  past  at  least  is  secure." 

Massachusetts  is  herself  the  memorial  of  her  founders  ;  to 
comprehend  her  annals  is  to  know,  appreciate,  and  admire 
them. 

In  the  hands  of  Winthrop,  Dudley,  and  their  associates 
she  grew  to  be  almost  a  sovereign  commonwealth ;  she 
determined  without  foreign  advice  the  issues  of  war  and  of 
peace ;  she  joined  in  a  confederation  with  sister  colonies ; 
she  exercised  the  sovereign  prerogative  of  coining  money ; 
while  without  hesitation  she  taxed  her  citizens  and  their 
estates,  she  contributed  nothing  to  the  treasury  of  Eng 
land,  she  created  her  own  laws,  with  a  respectful  acknow 
ledgment  of  their  subordination  to  the  supreme  authority  of 
the  laws  of  England,  but  resisted  and  disclaimed  all  rights 
of  appeal  to  foreign  jurisdiction  ;  she  had  in  the  Body  of 
Liberties  twelve  capital  laws,  involving  the  issues  of  life  and 
death ;  and  in  her  Laws  and  Liberties,  published  in  1649,  is 
a  statute  against  rebellion,  conspiracy,  invasion,  and  insur 
rection,  in  effect,  including  treason,  with  a  death  penalty 
attached  to  the  violation  of  the  law ;  she  raised  armies  and 
equipped  them,  and  fortified  her  ports,  and  collected  tribute 
of  her  neighbors  ;  she  received  agents  of  France  and  of  Hol 
land,  and  appointed  agents  to  negotiate  with  them  and  make 
treaties  of  peace  and  consult  about  alliances  for  mutual  pro 
tection  ;  when  she  felt  that  her  liberties  were  in  peril  from 
British  intervention,  she  always  resorted  to  a  Fabian  policy, 
and  to  fasting  and  prayer,  and  thus  retained  her  first  charter, 
as  a  bulwark  against  English  supremacy,  until  I684.1 

There  were  thirty-one  towns,  or  units,  of  our  system,  repre 
sented  in  the  General  Court  at  the  decease  of  Dudley,  in 
1  Maverick's  Description  of  N.  E.,  1660,  19. 


CONCLUSION  427 

1653.  The  government  of  Massachusetts  was  a  representa 
tive  republic,  with  the  departments  of  executive,  judiciary, 
and  legislative  authority.  The  ministers  had  no  political 
power ;  they  had,  however,  great  influence  because  of  their 
extensive  knowledge  and  excellent  character.  They  were 
also  very  numerous  early  in  the  history  of  the  colony. 

Massachusetts  established  a  common  school  system  at 
that  time  in  advance  of  all  the  world,  supported  by  public 
money,  and  enforced  attendance  to  the  schools  was  exacted 
by  law. 

It  is  well  to  remember,  also,  her  relative  importance  in  the 
New  England  colonies.  More  than  half  of  the  population 
of  the  entire  confederacy  was  in  Massachusetts,  and  more 
than  half  of  the  wealth.  She  was  the  mother  of  states, 
Rhode  Island  and  Connecticut  being  her  offspring,  while 
Maine  and  New  Hampshire  were  an  integral  portion  of  her, 
and  Vermont  was  not  yet  settled. 

Plymouth  Rock  was  the  beginning,  in  1620,  without  which 
the  other  colonies  might  never  have  existed,  while  without 
the  "great  emigration"  to  Massachusetts,  in  1630,  the  Plym 
outh  Colony  might  have  perished.1 

Plymouth  was  the  first  in  American  church  independ 
ency,2  and  her  people  endured  greater  privations  and  suffer 
ing  than  those  of  any  other  New  England  colony.  But  she 
was  not  otherwise  conspicuous.  She  has  contributed  her 
full  share  towards  making  Massachusetts  great  and  strong, 
but  after  all  she  has  been  tributary  and  incidental,  and  not 
the  trunk  and  main  body  of  character  and  influence,3  the 
orators  of  Forefathers'  Day  to  the  contrary  notwithstanding. 
She  was  as  sound  in  the  faith  as  Massachusetts,  but  more 
tender  towards  Mrs.  Hutchinson,  the  Baptists,  and  Quakers. 

Massachusetts  not  only  took  the  lead  in  population  and 
wealth,  but  in  education,  in  political  organization,4  in  its 
code  of  laws,6  in  that  unconquerable  energy  which  captured 
Louisburg  on  Cape  Breton  Island,  which  brought  the  colony 

1  Hutchinson,  ii.  476,  477.          2  Ib.,  ii.  467.         8  Ib.,  ii.  468,  469. 
4  Ib.,  ii.  467.  6  Ib.,  ii.  463. 


428  THOMAS   DUDLEY 

to  the  front  in  King  Philip's  War  (though  Plymouth  suffered 
fearfully),  and  made  the  State  most  prominent  in  the  War 
of  the  Revolution 1  and  in  the  Civil  War,  and  later  in  philan 
thropy,  in  charities,  and  in  literature.  The  leadership  has 
emanated  from  Boston,  the  "  Hub,"  and  not  from  Plymouth. 

What  Governor  Hutchinson  has  said  of  the  distinguished 
men  of  Plymouth  applies  with  still  greater  force  to  the 
eminent  founders  of  Massachusetts.  "  I  am  not  preserving 
from  oblivion  the  names  of  heroes,  whose  chief  merit  is  the 
overthrow  of  cities,  provinces,  and  empires,  but  the  names 
of  the  founders  of  flourishing  towns  and  a  colony,  if  not  of 
the  whole  British  empire  in  America."  2 

The  existence  of  these  English  colonies  for  a  time  was 
uncertain,  as  they  were  beset  with  enemies.  The  Dutch 
were  on  the  west,  the  French  on  the  east  and  north,  the 
.  Spaniards  on  the  west  and  south,  and  the  Indians  every 
where.  If  the  story  of  our  country  is  the  story  of  the  growth 
of  modern  liberty,  the  importance  of  the  Massachusetts 
colony  at  this  critical  juncture  is  measureless. 

We  have  thus  briefly  presented  a  few  characteristics  of 
Massachusetts  as  she  came  forth  from  the  hands  of  her 
great  master  builders  ;  her  progress  we  have  been  following 
through  these  pages  in  the  life  of  one  of  the  greatest  of  her 
founders.  Lord  Macaulay  said,  "  The  Puritans  were  perhaps 
the  most  remarkable  body  of  men  the  world  has  ever  known." 
Here  certainly  was  their  greatest  and  most  permanent  work. 
Royalty  overwhelmed  them  in  England,  but  both  they  and 
the  remarkable  productions  of  their  labors  survive  here,  since 
the  democratic  republic  still  exists. 

We  are  ungrateful  children  if,  with  the  magnificent  inher 
itance  which  they  have  transmitted  to  us,  we,  without  becom 
ing  candor,  deride  their  bigotry  or  make  light  of  their  zeal ; 
if  we  measure  them  by  the  standard  of  civilization  and  public 
opinion  of  our  age. 

Edward  Everett  said,  "I  reverence,  this  side  of  idolatry, 

1  Anglo-Saxon  Freedom,  Hosmer,  216,  note  i. 

2  Hutchinson,  ii.  463. 


CONCLUSION  429 

the  wisdom  and  fortitude  of  the  revolutionary  and  constitu 
tional  leaders,  but  I  believe  we  ought  to  go  back  beyond 
them  all  for  the  real  framers  of  the  commonwealth.  I 
believe  that  its  foundation  stones,  like  those  of  the  capitol  of 
Rome,  lie  deep  and  solid,  out  of  sight  at  the  bottom  of  the 
wall ;  Cyclopean  work  —  the  work  of  the  Pilgrims  [Puritans] 
—  with  nothing  below  them  but  the  rock  of  ages."  l 

We  have  noticed  in  an  early  portion  of  this  work  the  very 
creditable  career  of  Thomas  Dudley  in  England  before  he 
came  to  America,  at  the  age  of  fifty-four  years.  We  then 
congratulated  ourselves  that  at  that  mature  period  in  life 
the  remainder  of  his  journey  would  be  secure,  and  that  we 
might  safely  conclude  that  he  would  be  guided  by  the  same 
wisdom  and  sound  judgment  which  had  distinguished  his 
course  in  the  past.  We  were  then  sure  that  what  he  had 
already  achieved,  his  well-established  principle,  manifest 
tendencies,  and  that  genuine  character  which  inspires  confi 
dence  in  all  of  us  were  guarantees  of  his  great  future  in 
America. 

Nothing  less  than  the  testimony  of  two  witnesses  to  any 
overt  act  of  wrong-doing,  charged  against  him  in  the  face  of 
this  record,  can  carry  conviction  to  the  minds  of  those  who 
are  informed  respecting  him.  Winthrop's  Journal,  unsup 
ported  in  matters  of  controversy,  is  to  be  read  thoughtfully. 
Such  is  the  force  and  influence  of  well-established  and  thor 
oughly  grounded  character  in  human  society.  We  firmly 
believe  that  his  American  record  sustains  our  expectations 
thus  early  formed,  and  that  our  confidence  in  his  future  was 
not  then  misplaced. 

The  nations  of  antiquity  deified  the  founders  of  their 
states,  but  there  are  indifferent  citizens  in  the  old  common 
wealth  who  detract  from  the  just  merits  of  her  heroes  and 
planters  with  every  refinement  of  severity.  "  God  sifted  a 
whole  nation  that  he  might  send  choice  grain  over  into  this 
wilderness,"  said  the  Rev.  William  Stoughton  in  1669.  "God 
had  sifted  three  kingdoms  to  find  wheat  for  this  planting," 
1  Oration  0*1  the  Settlement  of  Mass.,  243. 


430  THOMAS    DUDLEY 

sang  H.  W.  Longfellow.  Emerson  has  said  that  "to  be 
great  is  to  be  misunderstood." 

Dudley  belonged  to  that  immediate  age  after  the  Bible 
came  to  the  English  common  people.  He  was  never  blessed 
with  the  light  of  "  higher  criticism,"  but  read  the  Bible  in 
childlike  simplicity  and  belief.  He  was  also  a  sincere,  ear 
nest  Calvinist.  He  breathed  the  same  air,  read  the  same 
literature,  and  heard  the  same  ministers  preach  as  his  asso 
ciates.  He  delighted  in  the  preaching  of  the  greatest  and 
most  learned  Puritan  divines,  both  in  England  and  in 
America. 

The  author  is  convinced,  after  careful  examination,  that 
the  incidents  and  poems  which  have  been  the  stock  material 
for  writers  during  many  years,  used,  repeated,  and  enlarged 
upon  to  discredit  the  name  and  character  of  Governor  Dud 
ley,  have  been  misconstrued  and  misunderstood.  "  Let  not 
the  land  once  proud  of  him  insult  him  now."  The  aim  and 
purpose  to  do  justice,  tardy  indeed,  to  the  life  and  character 
of  Governor  Dudley  has  been  an  important  incident  in  our 
work,  as  we  intimated  at  the  beginning  that  it  would  be.  It 
has  been  our  earnest  purpose  to  have  the  truth  spoken  at 
last  respecting  him. 

Those  lines  found  in  Dudley's  pocket  after  his  death, 
which  we  have  given,  are  usually  quoted  to  prove  his  bigotry, 
respecting  which  one  author  says,  "  wherein  the  intolerance 
of  that  age  is  neatly  summed  up."  This  author  uses  certain 
of  these  grim  epithets,  and  then  says  in  effect  that  these 
lines  by  Dudley  "neatly  sum  up  the  intolerance  of  that 
age."  If  we  understand  him,  Dudley  is  no  more  intolerant 
in  his  verses,  at  least,  than  his  neighbors  in  their  opinions ; 
and  if  the  lines  do  really  express  the  height  and  depth  of 
their  intolerant  thought,  he  ought  not  to  be  selected  to  re 
ceive  from  this  age  vicarious  punishment  for  all  the  heaped- 
up  sins  in  bigotry  of  his  period.  If,  on  the  other  hand,  it  is 
the  purpose  of  these  critics  to  single  out  Dudley  as  the  fore 
most  Puritan,  more  truly  representative  of  his  age  than  any 
one  else,  then  we  claim  that  before  the  casting  of  stones  at 


CONCLUSION  431 

him  began,  it  should  have  been  publicly  announced  that  he 
suffered  in  the  stead  and  behalf  of  his  most  illustrious  con 
temporaries  and  for  the  errors  of  an  intolerant  age,  as  its 
special  hero. 

The  fact  is,  as  we  have  shown,  that  his  lines  were  intended 
to  call  attention  to  public  danger  from  fanatics.  For  two 
reasons :  people  were  more  exposed  then  to  danger  than  we 
are.  They  had  no  prisons  or  asylums  ;  and  society  was  then 
so  limited  in  extent  that  a  few  ungovernable  people  could  do 
greater  harm  than  would  be  possible  to-day  in  the  midst  of 
millions  of  inhabitants.1 

Mr.  Savage  says,  in  effect,  that  Dudley  was  penurious. 
But  he  had  judgments  of  the  Court  against  Winthrop  and 
freely  gave  the  claims  to  him.  He  placed  a  bond  upon  his 
estate  and  headed  the  list  of  subscriptions  to  secure  the  per 
manency  of  the  Roxbury  Latin  School.  Morton  says  that 
he  served  the  public  many  years  at  his  own  cost.  These  are 
a  few  instances,  and  more  might  be  cited  with  a  confirmation 
from  his  written  words,  to  show  that  he  was  not  selfish  or 
mean,  but  on  the  other  hand  in  a  high  degree  public-spirited. 
His  emigration  itself  confutes  the  accusation. 

11  One  of  thy  Founders,  him  New-England  know, 
Who  staid  thy  feeble  sides  when  thou  wast  low, 
Who  spent  his  estate,  his  strength,  and  years  with  care 
That  After-comers  in  them  might  have  share. 
True  patriot  of  this  little  Commonweal, 
Who  is 't  can  tax  thee  aught,  but  for  thy  zeal  ?  "  2 

1  These  hostile  writers  seem,  through  centuries,  to  have  hung  on 
Governor  Thomas  Dudley,  "  as  if  increase  of  appetite  had  grown  by 
what  it  fed  upon."     This  is  an  ancient  as  well  as  modern  experience. 
A  Roman  poet  two  centuries  before  Christ  discovered  it,  "  for  enemies 
carry  about  slander  not  in  the  form  in  which  it  took  its  rise."     But 
a  nobler  Roman  said,  "There  is  nothing  which  wings  its  flight  so 
swiftly  as  calumny,  nothing  which  is  uttered  with  more  ease;  nothing 
is  listened  to  with  more  readiness,  nothing  dispersed  more  widely ; " 
and  Shakespeare  declares,  "  Whose  breath  rides  on  the  posting  winds 
and  doth  belie  all  corners  of  the  world." 

2  Anne  Bradstreet. 


432  THOMAS   DUDLEY 

The  opinions  formed  of  Dudley  in  his  lifetime  by  his 
fellow-citizens,  as  we  have  said,  are  the  only  conclusive  ones 
for  or  against  him,  since  he  has  left  little  in  writing  by  which 
to  judge  of  his  sentiments.  These  opinions,  so  far  as  we  have 
discovered,  are  uniformly  and  strongly  in  his  favor,  with  the 
slight  exception  of  a  few  sentences  in  Winthrop's  Journal, 
written  in  the  heat  of  personal  encounter.  But  in  later 
years  and  cooler  moments  Winthrop  has  given  his  testimony 
greatly  to  the  credit  of  Dudley.  He  knew  Dudley  more 
thoroughly  than  any  one  else. 

He  says  of  him,  "  This  gentleman  was  a  man  of  approved 
wisdom  and  godliness  and  of  much  good  service  to  the 
country,  and  therefore  it  was  his  due  to  serve  in  such  honor 
and  benefit  as  the  country  had  to  bestow."  1 

These  words,  "  approved  wisdom  and  godliness,"  possess 
an  excellent  flavor,  considering  their  source ;  and  moreover 
they  then  had  been  ten  years  together  in  authority,  in  the 
most  difficult  and  responsible  period,  consulting  each  other 
at  every  step,  not  always  agreeing,  but  in  those  differences 
Dudley  was,  perhaps  in  every  instance,  approved  by  the 
Court  and  people.  Their  early  bickerings  were  now  passed 
and  gone,  they  had  settled  down  to  their  business  of  state 
craft  in  earnest. 

We  have  through  the  diary  of  Winthrop  the  contemporary 
testimony  in  1635  of  Sir  Harry  Vane,  supported  by  that  of 
Governor  John  Haynes,  Richard  Bellingham,  Cotton,  Hooker, 
and  Wilson,  that  "  Dudley  and  Winthrop  were  those  upon 
whom  the  weight  of  the  affairs  did  lie,"  etc.2 

1  Winthrop,  ii.  *3. 

2  Ib.,  i.  *I77.     Increase  Mather,  president  of  Harvard  University, 
a  contemporary  of   Thomas   Dudley,   pronounced  him   "  a  principal 
founder  and  pillar  of  the  colony  of  Massachusetts,  and  as  a  nursing 
father  of  the  churches."     (Hist.  Harv.  Univ.,  by  Josiah  Quincy,  i.  152.) 
Even  Roger  Williams,  in  1640,  when  his  trials  in  Massachusetts  were 
ended,  writes  to  Winthrop  of  his  "  much  honored  brother,  Mr.  Gov 
ernor"  [Dudley.]    (Pub.  Narr.  Club,  vi.  138.) 

The  testimony  of  Dudley's  neighbor,  Nathaniel  Morton,  of  Plymouth, 
is  of  great  value.  Morton,  from  his  professional  life  of  secretary  of  the 


CONCLUSION  433 

It  is  highly  probable  that  the  temporary  unpopularity  in 
Massachusetts  of  Governor  Joseph  Dudley,1  the  efficient 

Court,  was  in  the  very  best  position  to  estimate  the  value  of  men.  His 
work,  "New  England's  Memorial,"  has  the  approval  of  historians.  He 
says:  "Mr.  Dudley,  who  was  a  principal  founder  and  pillar  of  the 
colony  of  the  Massachusetts,  in  New  England,  and  sundry  times  gov 
ernor  and  deputy  governor  of  that  jurisdiction,  died  at  his  home  in 
Roxbury,  July  31,  1653,  in  the  seventy-seventh  year  of  his  age.  He 
was  a  person  of  quick  understanding  and  solid  judgment  in  the  fear  of 
the  Lord.  He  was  a  lover  of  justice,  order,  the  people,  Christian  reli 
gion,  —  the  supreme  virtues  of  a  good  magistrate. 

"  I.  His  love  to  justice  appeared  at  all  times,  and  in  special  upon  the 
judgment-seat,  without  respect  of  persons  in  judgment;  and  in  his  own 
particular  transactions  with  all  men  he  was  exact  and  exemplary. 

"II.  His  zeal  to  order  appeared  in  contriving  good  laws  and  faith 
fully  executing  them  upon  criminal  offenders,  heretics,  and  undermin- 
ers  of  true  religion.  He  had  a  piercing  judgment  to  discover  the  wolf, 
though  clothed  with  a  sheepskin. 

"III.  His  love  to  the  people  was  evident  in  serving  them  in  a  public 
capacity  many  years,  at  his  own  cost,  and  that  as  a  nursing  father  to 
the  churches  of  Christ. 

"  IV.  He  loved  the  true  Christian  religion,  and  the  pure  worship  of 
God,  and  cherished  as  in  his  bosom  all  godly  ministers  and  Christians. 
He  was  exact  in  the  practice  of  piety,  in  his  person  and  family,  all  his 
life.  In  a  word,  he  lived  desired,  and  died  lamented  by  all  good  men." 
(Nathaniel  Morton's  New  England's  Memorial,  166.) 

What  a  need  there  is  in  executive  chairs,  in  legislative  halls,  and  on 
the  benches  of  justice  for  such  able  and  upright  public  men  ! 

Another  personal  acquaintance  of  Dudley  was  Captain  Edward  John 
son,  who  came  with  him  in  the  "great  emigration"  in  1630,  and  repre 
sented  the  town  of  Woburn  in  the  General  Court  every  year  until  1671, 
except  1643.  They  were  thus  officially  connected  in  the  government 
nine  years,  and  were  probably  acquainted  as  long  as  Mr.  Dudley  lived 
in  the  colony. 

Johnson  says  of  him,  that  in  1632  "  The  ancient  Thomas  Dudley, 
Esq.,  was  deputy  governor,  a  man  of  a  sound  judgment  in  matters  of 
religion  and  well  read,  bestowing  much  labor  that  way,  of  whom  as  fol- 
loweth :  The  honored,  aged,  stable,  and  sincere  servant  of  Christ, 
zealous  for  his  truth,  Thomas  Dudley,  Esq.,  four  times  governor  of  the 
English  nation  in  the  Massachusetts,  and  first  major-general  of  the 
military  forces."  He  says  again,  "In  1647  the  honored  John  Win- 

1  See  Appendix  B. 


434  THOMAS   DUDLEY 

friend  of  Harvard,  but  also  an  ally  of  royalty  and  Andros, 
may  have  without  reason  diminished  public  respect  for  the 
family,  and  left  the  robust  character  of  his  father  unguarded 
and  exposed,  in  the  tumult  of  politics,  to  deductions,  and  in 
ferences  from  that  portion  of  Winthrop's  Journal  which 
covers  the  brief  period  when  he  and  Winthrop  were  not  good 
friends. 

If  we  compare  the  men  who  were  most  prominent  in  the 
founding  of  Massachusetts,  we  shall  find  that  Governor 
Endicott  was  a  more  reckless  man  than  Governor  Dudley, 
as  shown  by  his  contempt  of  Court  in  I635,1  an^  by  h*8  cut 
ting  the  red  cross  out  of  the  king's  colors  ;  more  vindictive, 
as  was  evident  in  his  treatment  of  Baptists,2  and  later  of  the 
Quaker  martyrs.3 

Governor  Winthrop  was  more  morbid  and  superstitious, 
as  appears  in  his  own  account  of  Mary  Dyer  and  Ann 
Hutchinson,  and  in  other  writings  by  him,4  and  was  more 

throp,  Esq.,  was  chosen  governor,  and  the  like  honored  Thomas  Dud 
ley,  Esq.,  deputy  governor."  (Wonder-Working  Providence,  68,  207.) 

The  General  Court,  in  1646,  speaks  of  "our  much-honored  and  right 
trusty  and  well-beloved  Thomas  Dudley,  Esq." 

William  Hubbard,  who  came  to  Massachusetts  in  1635  and  graduated 
at  Harvard  in  1642  in  its  first  class,  knew  Governor  Dudley  and  the 
public  estimate  of  him,  and  he  says  in  his  New  England  History  that 
when  he  died  he  left  not  his  equal  behind  in  the  magistracy.  (Mass. 
Hist.  Soc.  Coll.,  2d  series,  vi.  chap.  Ixii.  552.) 

Cotton  Mather  was  born  ten  years  after  the  decease  of  Dudley,  and 
must  have  known  many  persons  who  knew  him,  including  his  own  dis 
tinguished  father,  Increase  Mather.  He  informs  us  that  "  He  was  a 
man  of  great  spirit  as  well  as  of  a  great  understanding  ;  suitable  to  the 
family  he  was  by  his  father  descended  from ;  and  envy  itself  cannot 
deny  him  a  place  amongst  the  first  three  that  ever  were  called  to  in 
termeddle  in  the  affairs  of  the  Massachusetts.  He  was  endowed  with 
many  excellent  abilities  that  qualified  him  thereunto."  (Proc.  Mass. 
Hist.  Soc.  1870,  220.) 

1  Mass.  Col.  Rec.,  i.  157. 

2  Backus's  Hist.  Bapt.,  i.  181. 

3  Dudley  had  deceased  three  years  before  any  Friends  arrived  in 
Boston. 

4  E.  Eggleston's  Beginnings  of  a  Nation,  340,  341. 


CONCLUSION  435 

contracted  in  his  political  ideas,  as  was  seen  in  his  opposition 
to  Governors  Vane  and  Dudley  in  the  matter  of  spreading 
the  king's  colors  at  Castle  Island.1 

He  was  not  so  frank  and  open  as  Dudley,  as  appeared  in 
his  method  of  removing  his  house  from  Cambridge,  which 
was  disapproved  of  by  the  Court ;  more  intriguing,  as  mani 
fested  in  letting  the  officers  go  to  Salem  to  arrest  Roger 
Williams,  when  he  had  reason  to  believe  that  under  his  own 
advice  he  had  already  gone  to  Rhode  Island,  the  particular 
movement  by  Williams  which  the  Court  feared,  and  wished 
to  prevent. 

He  did  no  more  constructive  work  in  the  committees  in 
framing  the  laws  than  Dudley.  He  and  Dudley  were  each 
twice  president  of  the  confederacy,  and  no  other  person  was 
president  when  either  of  them  was  a  commissioner.  Dudley 
was  commissioner  in  1643,  1647,  and  1649.  They  both 
assisted  in  forming  the  Articles  of  Confederation,  and  for 
nine  or  ten  of  the  last  years  of  their  lives  were  brothers 
beloved,  of  one  political  faith,  and  if  they  had  personal  dif 
ferences  they  kept  them  to  themselves.  There  was  one 
striking  contrast  between  them :  Dudley,  as  we  have  noticed, 
took  no  care  for  posthumous  fame;  and  what  is  more  strange, 
with  one  exception,  concealed  his  ancestry,  which  was  emi 
nent.  If  he  had  said  more  about  himself  he  probably  would 
have  left  less  opportunity  for  misrepresentation  of  his  char 
acter.  Winthrop  left  a  diary,  was  the  first  governor  and 
founder,  and  in  recent  years  his  statue  is  erected  in  Boston, 
at  Mount  Auburn,  and  in  the  Capitol  at  Washington,  justly 
proclaiming  him  as  the  founder  of  Massachusetts ;  but  he 
was  not  alone  in  that  immortal  service,  and  should  share 
the  honor  with  his  worthy  colleague.2 

1  Winthrop,  i.  *i89;  ii.  *42i. 

2  The  omission  of  Dudley  from  that  companionship  of  illustrious 
names  which  encircles  the  hall  of  representatives  in  the  capitol  of  Mas 
sachusetts  is  a  matter  for  anxious  thought.     Dudley  was  in  any  event, 
however  otherwise  bounded  or  described,  hardly  second  in  weight  and 
influence  in  the  beginning  of  the  colony.     His  career  furnishes  no 


436  THOMAS   DUDLEY 

We  trust  that  the  commonwealth  which  Dudley  helped 
to  found  will  at  last  in  sincere  gratitude,  after  these  tardy 
years,  place  his  statue,  a  thing  he  never  sought,  in  her  great 
public  squares,  that  the  world  may  know  that  she  delights 
without  respect  of  persons  to  honor  her  illustrious  men,  and 
to  extend  the  influence  of  noble  character  and  honorable 
public  service  to  the  coming  generations  of  her  citizens. 

Dudley  had  little  personal  ambition  for  fame.  His  politics 
seemed  to  be  guided  by  his  idea  of  the  higher  law.  He  was 
considering  conscience  more  and  fostering  reputation  less. 
He  was  not  casting  about  to  discover  what  he  was  to  get  out 
of  political  action  or  what  niche  in  earthly  renown  would 
reward  him. 

We  are  convinced  that  for  sterling  worth  and  ability,  for 
downright  manliness,  for  that  true  grandeur  of  righteous 
character  and  Christian  virtue  which  we  admire  in  Wash 
ington  and  in  Lincoln,  Thomas  Dudley  was  the  peer  of  any 
man  among  the  founders  of  New  England. 

excuse  for  neglect,  like  the  too  bold  words  of  Byron,  which  excluded  his 
ashes  from  Westminster  Abbey,  as  if  in  realization  of  his  prophetic 
lines :  — 

"  If  my  fame  should  be,  as  my  fortunes  are, 

Of  hasty  growth  and  blight,  and  dull  Oblivion  bar 

My  name  from  out  the  temple  where  the  dead 

Are  honor'd  by  the  nations  —  let  it  be  — 

And  light  the  laurels  on  a  loftier  head  ! 

And  be  the  Spartan's  epitaph  on  me  — 

'  Sparta  hath  many  a  worthier  son  than  he.'  " 

(Childe  Harold,  Canto  iv.  80-86.) 

This  oversight  of  Dudley  is  \unfortunately  only  one  among  many  evi 
dences  that  true  grandeur  of  character  may  be  rejected  by  the  people 
who  sometimes  subsequently  erect  monuments  to  its  undying  worth.  La 
Fontaine  wisely  said,  "  If  you  really  wish  to  prevent  the  commission  of 
injustice,  you  must  first  remove  error  and  prejudice." 


APPENDIX   A 

GOVERNOR   THOMAS   DUDLEY'S    LETTER1 

To  THE  RIGHT  HONORABLE,  MY  VERY  GOOD  LADY,  THE  LADY 

BRIDGET,  COUNTESS  OF  LINCOLN  : 

Madam,  —  Your  letters  (which  are  not  common  nor  cheap),  fol 
lowing  me  hither  into  New  England,  and  bringing  with  them 
renewed  testimonies  of  the  accustomed  favors  you  honored  me 
with  in  the  Old,  have  drawn  from  me  this  narrative  retribution, 
which  (in  respect  of  your  proper  interest  in  some  persons  of  great 
note  amongst  us)  was  the  thankfullest  present  I  had  to  send  over 
the  seas.  Therefore  I  humbly  entreat  your  Honor  this  be 
accepted  as  payment  from  him  who  neither  hath  nor  is  any  more 
than  Your  Honor's  old  thankful  servant, 

T.  D. 

BOSTON,  in  New-England,  March  I2th,  1630. 

For  the  satisfaction  of  your  honor  and  some  friends,  and  for 
the  use  of  such  as  shall  hereafter  intend  to  increase  our  Planta 
tion  in  New  England,  I  have,  in  the  throng  of  domestic,  and  not 
altogether  free  from  public  business,  thought  fit  to  commit  to 
memory  our  present  condition,  and  what  hath  befallen  us  since 
our  arrival  here ;  which  I  will  do  shortly,  after  my  usual  manner, 

1  Samuel  E.  Drake  says, "  I  should  not  be  pardoned  by  any  intelligent  reader, 
I  think,  were  I  not  to  allow  a  man  of  Governor  Dudley's  importance  to  tell 
things  as  he  saw  and  knew  them;  being  one  of  those  who  wrote  'with  his 
hands  to  the  plow,'  and  tells  us  things  nowhere  else  to  be  found.  He  wrote 
within  the  year  of  settlement.  .  .  .  With  this  paragraph  ends  the  invaluable 
Letter  of  Dudley.  No  document  in  the  annals  of  Boston  will  compare  in  im 
portance  with  it,  and  no  one  can  successfully  study  this  period  of  its  history 
without  it."  (Drake's  Hist,  and  Antiq.  of  Boston,  91,  122,  123,  notes.)  Alex 
ander  Young  pronounces  it  "  the  most  interesting  as  well  as  authentic  docu 
ment  in  our  early  annals."  (Young's  Chron.,  340,  note.)  James  Savage  says, 
"The  high  authority  of  Governor  Dudley's  Narrative  (Mass.  Hist.  Coll., 
ist  series,  viii.  37)  makes  it  vanish."  (Winthrop,  i.  ^43.)  One  of  the  best 
annotated  copies  of  this  letter  is  in  Young's  Chronicles,  303-341. 


438  APPENDIX  A 

and  must  do  rudely,  having  yet  no  table  nor  other  room  to  write 
in  than  by  the  fireside  upon  my  knee,  in  this  sharp  winter ;  to 
which  my  family  must  have  leave  to  resort,  though  they  break 
good  manners,  and  make  me  many  times  forget  what  I  would  say, 
and  say  what  I  would  not. 

.  .  .  sachim  in  New-England,  whom  I  saw  the  last  summer. 
Upon  the  river  of  Naponset,  near  to  the  Mattachusetts  fields, 
dwelleth  Chickatalbott,  who  hath  between  fifty  and  sixty  subjects. 
This  man  least  favoreth  the  English  of  any  sagamore  (for  so  are 
the  kings  with  us  called,  as  they  are  sachims  southwards)  we  are 
acquainted  with,  by  reason  of  the  old  quarrel  between  him  and 
those  of  Plymouth,  wherein  he  lost  seven  of  his  best  men ;  yet 
he  lodged  one  night  the  last  winter  at  my  house  in  friendly  man 
ner.  About  seventy  or  eighty  miles  westward  from  these  are 
seated  the  Nipnett  men,  whose  sagamore  we  know  not,  but  we 
hear  their  numbers  exceed  any  but  the  Pequods  and  the  Narra- 
gansets,  and  they  are  the  only  people  we  yet  hear  of  in  the  inland 
country.  Upon  the  river  of  Mistick  is  seated  sagamore  John,  and 
upon  the  river  of  Saugus  sagamore  James,  his  brother,  both  so 
named  by  the  English.  The  elder  brother,  John,  is  a  handsome 
young  man,  [one  line  missing]  conversant  with  us,  affecting  Eng 
lish  apparel  and  houses,  and  speaking  well  of  our  God.  His 
brother  James  is  of  a  far  worse  disposition,  yet  repaireth  often  to 
us.  Both  these  brothers  command  not  above  thirty  or  forty  men, 
for  aught  I  can  learn.  Near  to  Salem  dwelleth  two  or  three 
families,  subject  to  the  sagamore  of  Agawam,  whose  name  he 
told  me,  but  I  have  forgotten  it.  This  sagamore  hath  but  few 
subjects,  and  them  and  himself  tributary  to  sagamore  James, 
having  been  before  the  last  year  (in  James's  minority)  tributary 
to  Chickatalbott.  Upon  the  river  Merrimack  is  seated  sagamore 
Piscataqua,  having  under  his  command  four  or  five  hundred  men, 
being  esteemed  by  his  countrymen  a  false  fellow,  and  by  us  a 
witch.  For  any  more  northerly,  I  know  not,  but  leave  it  to  after 
Relations. 

Having  thus  briefly  and  disorderly,  especially  in  my  description 
of  the  bays  and  rivers,  set  down  what  is  come  to  hand  touching 
the  \one  line  missing]. 

Now  concerning  the  English  that  are  planted  here,  I  find  that 
about  the  year  1620  certain  English  set  out  from  Leyden,  in 
Holland,  intending  their  course  for  Hudson's  river,  the  mouth 


APPENDIX  A  439 

whereof  lieth  south  of  the  river  of  the  Pequods,  but  ariseth,  as  I  am 
informed,  northwards  in  about  43°,  and  so  a  good  part  of  it  within 
the  compass  of  our  patent.  These,  being  much  weather-beaten 
and  wearied  with  seeking  the  river,  after  a  most  tedious  voyage 
arrived  at  length  in  a  small  bay  lying  northeast  from  Cape  Cod ; 
where  landing  about  the  month  of  December,  by  the  favor  of  a 
calm  winter,  such  as  was  never  seen  here  since,  began  to  build 
their  dwellings  in  that  place  which  now  is  called  New  Plymouth ; 
where,  after  much  sickness,  famine,  poverty,  and  great  mortality 
(through  all  which  God  by  an  unwonted  providence  carried  them), 
they  are  now  grown  up  to  a  people  healthful,  wealthy,  politic,  and 
religious  ;  such  things  doth  the  Lord  for  those  that  wait  for  his 
mercies.  These  of  Plymouth  came  with  patents  from  King  James, 
and  have  since  obtained  others  from  our  sovereign,  King  Charles, 
having  a  governor  and  council  of  their  own. 

There  was  about  the  same  time  one  Mr.  Weston,  an  English 
merchant,  who  sent  divers  men  to  plant  and  trade,  who  sat  down 
by  the  river  of  Wesaguscus.  But  these  coming  not  for  so  good 
ends  as  those  of  Plymouth,  sped  not  so  well ;  for  the  most  of  them 
dying  and  languishing  away,  they  who  survived  were  rescued  by 
those  of  Plymouth  out  of  the  hands  of  Chickatalbott  and  his 
Indians,  who  oppressed  these  weak  English  and  intended  to  have 
destroyed  them,  and  the  Plymotheans  also,  as  is  set  down  in  a 
tract  written  by  Mr.  Win  slow,  of  Plymouth. 

Also,  since,  one  Captain  Wollaston,  with  some  thirty  with  him, 
came  near  to  the  same  place,  and  built  on  a  hill  which  he  named 
Mount  Wollaston.  But  being  not  supplied  with  renewed  provi 
sions,  they  vanished  away,  as  the  former  did. 

Also  divers  merchants  of  Bristow,  and  some  other  places,  have 
yearly  for  these  eight  years,  or  thereabouts,  sent  ships  hither  at 
the  fishing  times  to  trade  for  beaver;  where  their  factors  dis 
honestly,  for  their  gains,  have  furnished  the  Indians  with  guns, 
swords,  powder  and  shot. 

Touching  the  Plantation  which  we  here  have  begun,  it  fell  out 
thus.  About  the  year  1627,  some  friends  being  together  in  Lin* 
colnshire,  fell -into  discourse  about  New-England,  and  the  plant 
ing  of  the  Gospel  there ;  and  after  some  deliberation  we  imparted 
our  reasons,  by  letters  and  messages,  to  some  in  London  and  the 
west  country ;  where  it  was  likewise  deliberately  thought  upon, 
and  at  length  with  often  negotiation  so  ripened,  that  in  the  year 


440  APPENDIX  A 

1628  we  procured  a  patent  from  his  Majesty  for  our  planting 
between  the  Massachusetts  Bay  and  Charles  river  on  the  south, 
and  the  river  of  Merrimack  on  the  north,  and  three  miles  on 
either  side  of  those  rivers  and  bay ;  as  also  for  the  government 
of  those  who  did  or  should  inhabit  within  that  compass.  And 
the  same  year  we  sent  Mr.  John  Endicott,  and  some  with  him, 
to  begin  a  Plantation,  and  to  strengthen  such  as  he  should  find 
there,  which  we  sent  thither  from  Dorchester  and  some  places 
adjoining.  From  whom  the  same  year  receiving  hopeful  news, 
the  next  year,  1629,  we  sent  divers  ships  over,  with  about  three 
hundred  people,  and  some  cows,  goats,  and  horses,  many  of 
which  arrived  safely. 

These,  by  their  too  large  commendations  of  the  country  and 
the  commodities  thereof,  invited  us  so  strongly  to  go  on,  that  Mr. 
Winthrop,  of  Suffolk  (who  was  well  known  in  his  own  country, 
and  well  approved  here  for  his  piety,  liberality,  wisdom,  and 
gravity),  coming  in  to  us,  we  came  to  such  resolution,  that  in 
April,  1630,  we  set  sail  from  Old  England  with  four  good  ships. 
And  in  May  following  eight  more  followed  ;  two  having  gone 
before  in  February  and  March,  and  two  more  following  in  June 
and  August,  besides  another  set  out  by  a  private  merchant. 
These  seventeen  ships  arrived  all  safe  in  New-England,  for  the 
increase  of  the  Plantation  here  this  year,  1630,  but  made  a  long, 
a  troublesome,  and  costly  voyage,  being  all  wind-bound  long  in 
England,  and  hindered  with  contrary  winds  after  they  set  sail, 
and  so  scattered  with  mists  and  tempests  that  few  of  them  arrived 
together.  Our  four  ships  which  set  out  in  April  arrived  here  in 
June  and  July,  where  we  found  the  Colony  in  a  sad  and  unex 
pected  condition,  above  eighty  of  them  being  dead  the  winter 
before,  and  many  of  those  alive  weak  and  sick  ;  all  the  corn  and 
bread  amongst  them  all  hardly  sufficient  to  feed  them  a  fortnight, 
insomuch  that  the  remainder  of  a  hundred  and  eighty  servants 
we  had  the  two  years  before  sent  over,  coming  to  us  for  victuals 
to  sustain  them,  we  found  ourselves  wholly  unable  to  feed  them, 
by  reason  that  the  provisions  shipped  for  them  were  taken  out  of 
the  ship  they  were  put  in,  and  they  who  were  trusted  to  ship  them 
in  another  failed  us  and  left  them  behind,  whereupon  necessity 
enforced  us,  to  our  extreme  loss,  to  give  them  all  liberty,  who 
had  cost  us  about  £16  or  £20  a  person,  furnishing  and  sending 
over. 


APPENDIX   A  441 

But  bearing  these  things  as  we  mighf,  we  began  to  consult  of 
the  place  of  our  sitting  down  ;  for  Salem,  where  we  landed, 
pleased  us  not.  And  to  that  purpose,  some  were  sent  to  the 
Bay,  to  search  up  the  rivers  for  a  convenient  place ;  who,  upon 
their  return,  reported  to  have  found  a  good  place  upon  Mistick ; 
but  some  others  of  us,  seconding  these,  to  approve  or  dislike 
of  their  judgment,  we  found  a  place  [that]  liked  us  better,  three 
leagues  up  Charles  river ;  and  thereupon  unshipped  our  goods 
into  other  vessels,  and  with  much  cost  and  labor  brought  them  in 
July  to  Charlestown.  But  there  receiving  advertisements,  by 
some  of  the  late  arrived  ships,  from  London  and  Amsterdam,  of 
some  French  preparations  against  us  (many  of  our  people  brought 
with  us  being  sick  of  fevers  and  the  scurvy,  and  we  thereby 
unable  to  carry  up  our  ordnance  and  baggage  so  far),  we  were 
forced  to  change  counsel,  and  for  our  present  shelter  to  plant  dis- 
persedly,  some  at  Charlestown,  which  standeth  on  the  north  side 
of  the  mouth  of  Charles  river ;  some  on  the  south  side  thereof, 
which  place  we  named  Boston  (as  we  intended  to  have  done  the 
place  we  first  resolved  on)  j  some  of  us  upon  Mistick,  which  we 
named  Medford ;  some  of  us  westwards  on  Charles  river,  four 
miles  from  Charlestown,  which  place  we  named  Watertown ; 
others  of  us  two  miles  from  Boston,  in  a  place  we  named  Rox- 
bury;  others  upon  the  river  of  Saugus,  between  Salem  and 
Charlestown ;  and  the  western  men  four  miles  south  from  Bos 
ton,  at  a  place  we  named  Dorchester. 

This  dispersion  troubled  some  of  us ;  but  help  it  we  could  not, 
wanting  ability  to  remove  to  any  place  fit  to  build  a  town  upon, 
and  the  time  too  short  to  deliberate  any  longer,  lest  the  winter 
should  surprise  us  before  we  had  builded  our  houses.  The  best 
counsel  we  could  find  out  was  to  build  a  fort  to  retire  to,  in 
some  convenient  place,  if  any  enemy  pressed  us  thereunto,  after 
we  should  have  fortified  ourselves  against  the  injuries  of  wet  and 
cold.  So  ceasing  to  consult  further  for  that  time,  they  who  had 
health  to  labor  fell  to  building,  wherein  many  were  interrupted 
with  sickness,  and  many  died  weekly,  yea,  almost  daily.  Amongst 
whom  were  Mrs.  Pynchon,  Mrs.  Coddington,  Mrs.  Phillips,  and 
Mrs.  Alcock,  a  sister  of  Mr.  Hooker's.  Insomuch  that  the  ships 
being  now  upon  their  return,  some  for  England,  some  for  Ireland, 
there  was,  as  I  take  it,  not  much  less  than  a  hundred  (some  think 
many  more),  partly  out  of  dislike  of  our  government,  which 


442  APPENDIX   A 

restrained  and  punished  their  excesses,  and  partly  through  fear 
of  famine,  not  seeing  other  means  than  by  their  labor  to  feed 
themselves,  which  returned  back  again  ;  and  glad  were  we  so  to 
be  rid  of  them.  Others  also,  afterwards  hearing  of  men  of  their 
own  disposition,  which  were  planted  at  Piscataqua,  went  from 
us  to  them,  whereby  though  our  numbers  were  lessened,  yet  we 
accounted  ourselves  nothing  weakened  by  their  removal.  Before 
the  departure  of  the  ships,  we  contracted  with  Mr.  Peirce,  master 
of  the  Lion,  of  Bristow,  to  return  to  us  with  all  speed  with  fresh 
supplies  of  victuals,  and  gave  him  directions  accordingly.  With 
this  ship  returned  Mr.  Revell,  one  of  the  five  undertakers  here 
for  the  joint  stock  of  the  company,  and  Mr.  Vassall,  one  of  the 
Assistants,  and  his  family,  and  also  Mr.  Bright,  a  minister  sent 
hither  the  year  before. 

The  ships  being  gone,  victuals  wasting,  and  mortality  increas 
ing,  we  held  divers  fasts  in  our  several  congregations.  But  the 
Lord  would  not  yet  be  deprecated ;  for  about  the  beginning  of 
September  died  Mr.  Gager,  a  right  godly  man,  a  skilful  chirur- 
geon,  and  one  of  the  deacons  of  our  congregation  ;  and  Mr.  Hig- 
ginson,  one  of  the  ministers  of  Salem,  a  zealous  and  a  profitable 
preacher  —  this  of  a  consumption,  that  of  a  fever ;  and  on  the 
3oth  of  September  died  Mr.  Johnson,  another  of  the  five  under 
takers  (the  Lady  Arbella,  his  wife,  being  dead  a  month  before). 
This  gentleman  was  a  prime  man  amongst  us,  having  the  best 
estate  of  any,  zealous  for  religion,  and  the  greatest  furtherer  of 
this  Plantation.  He  made  a  most  godly  end,  dying  willingly, 
professing  his  life  better  spent  in  promoting  this  Plantation  than 
it  could  have  been  any  other  way.  He  left  to  us  a  loss  greater 
than  the  most  conceived.  Within  a  month  after,  died  Mr. 
Rossiter,  another  of  our  Assistants,  a  godly  man,  and  of  a  good 
estate,  which  still  weakened  us  more.  So  that  now  there  were 
left  of  the  five  undertakers  but  the  governor,  Sir  Richard  Salton- 
stall,  and  myself,  and  seven  other  of  the  Assistants.  And  of  the 
people  who  came  over  with  us,  from  the  time  of  their  setting  sail 
from  England  in  April,  1630,  until  December  following,  there  died 
by  estimation  about  two  hundred  at  the  least ;  so  low  hath  the 
Lord  brought  us ! 

Well,  yet  they  who  survived  were  not  discouraged,  but  bear 
ing  God's  corrections  with  humility  and  trusting  in  his  mercies, 
and  considering  how,  after  a  lower  ebb,  he  had  raised  up  our 


APPENDIX  A  443 

neighbours  at  Plymouth,  we  began  again  in  December  to  consult 
about  a  fit  place  to  build  a  town  upon,  leaving  all  thoughts  of  a 
fort,  because  upon  any  invasion  we  were  necessarily  to  lose  our 
houses,  when  we  should  retire  thereinto.  So  after  divers  meet 
ings  at  Boston,  Roxbury,  and  Watertown,  on  the  28th  of  Decem 
ber  we  grew  to  this  resolution,  to  bind  all  the  Assistants  (Mr. 
Endicott  and  Mr.  Sharpe  excepted,  which  last  purposeth  to  return 
by  the  next  ship  into  England)  to  build  houses  at  a  place  a  mile 
east  from  Watertown,  near  Charles  river,  the  next  spring,  and 
to  winter  there  the  next  year ;  that  so  by  our  examples,  and  by 
removing  the  ordnance  and  munition  thither,  all  who  were  able 
might  be  drawn  thither,  and  such  as  shall  come  to  us  hereafter, 
to  their  advantage  be  compelled  so  to  do ;  and  so,  if  God  would, 
a  fortified  town  might  there  grow  up,  the  place  fitting  reasonably 
well  thereto. 

I  should  have  mentioned  how  both  the  English  and  Indian 
corn  being  at  ten  shillings  a  strike,  and  beaver  being  valued  at 
six  shillings  a  pound,  we  made  laws  to  restrain  the  selling  of 
corn  to  the  Indians,  and  to  leave  the  price  of  beaver  at  liberty, 
which  was  presently  sold  for  ten  and  twenty  shillings  a  pound. 
I  should  also  have  remembered,  how  the  half  of  our  cows  and 
almost  all  our  mares  and  goats,  sent  us  out  of  England,  died  at 
sea  in  their  passage  hither,  and  that  those  intended  to  be  sent 
us  out  of  Ireland  were  not  sent  at  all  j  all  which,  together  with 
the  loss  of  our  six  months'  building,  occasioned  by  our  intended 
removal  to  a  town  to  be  fortified,  weakened  our  estates,  especially 
the  estates  of  the  undertakers,  who  were  3  or  ,£4000  engaged  in 
the  joint  stock,  which  was  now  not  above  so  many  hundreds. 
Yet  many  of  us  labored  to  bear  it  as  comfortably  as  we  could, 
remembering  the  end  of  our  coming  hither,  and  knowing  the 
power  of  God,  who  can  support  and  raise  us  again,  and  useth  to 
bring  his  servants  low  that  the  meek  may  be  made  glorious  by 
deliverance. 

In  the  end  of  this  December  departed  from  us  the  ship  Hand 
maid,  of  London,  by  which  we  sent  away  one  Thomas  Morton,  a 
proud,  insolent  man,  who  has  lived  here  divers  years,  and  had 
been  an  attorney  in  the  west  countries  while  he  lived  in  England. 
Multitude  of  complaints  were  received  against  him  for  injuries 
done  by  him  both  to  the  English  and  Indians ;  and  amongst 
others,  for  shooting  hailshot  at  a  troop  of  Indians  for  not  bring- 


444  APPENDIX  A 

ing  a  canoe  unto  him  to  cross  a  river  withal,  whereby  he  hurt 
one,  and  shot  through  the  garments  of  another.  For  the  satis 
faction  of  the  Indians  wherein,  and  that  it  might  appear  to  them 
and  to  the  English  that  we  meant  to  do  justice  impartially,  we 
caused  his  hands  to  be  bound  behind  him,  and  set  his  feet  in  the 
bilboes,  and  burned  his  house  to  the  ground,  all  in  the  sight  of 
the  Indians,  and  so  kept  him  prisoner  till  we  sent  him  for  Eng 
land  j  whither  we  sent  him,  for  that  my  Lord  Chief  Justice  there 
so  required,  that  he  might  punish  him  capitally  for  fouler  misde 
meanours  there  perpetrated,  as  we  were  informed. 

I  have  no  leisure  to  review  and  insert  things  forgotten,  but 
out  of  due  time  and  order  must  set  them  down  as  they  come  to 
memory.  About  the  end  of  October  this  year,  1630,  I  joined 
with  the  governor  and  Mr.  Mavereck  in  sending  out  our  pin 
nace  to  the  Narragansetts,  to  trade  for  corn  to  supply  our  wants ; 
but  after  the  pinnace  had  doubled  Cape  Cod,  she  put  into  the 
next  harbour  she  found,  and  there  meeting  with  Indians,  who 
showed  their  willingness  to  truck,  she  made  her  voyage  there, 
and  brought  us  a  hundred  bushels  of  corn,  at  about  four  shillings 
a  bushel,  which  helped  us  somewhat.  From  the  coast  where 
they  traded,  they  saw  a  very  large  island,  four  leagues  to  the 
east,  which  the  Indians  commended  as  a  fruitful  place,  full  of 
good  vines,  and  free  from  sharp  frosts,  having  one  only  entrance 
into  it,  by  a  navigable  river,  inhabited  by  a  few  Indians,  which 
for  a  trifle  would  leave  the  island,  if  the  English  would  set  them 
upon  the  main ;  but  the  pinnace,  having  no  direction  for  dis 
covery,  returned  without  sailing  to  it,  which  in  two  hours  they 
might  have  done.  Upon  this  coast  they  found  store  of  vines  full 
of  grapes  dead  ripe,  the  season  being  past ;  whither  we  purpose 
to  send  the  next  year  sooner,  to  make  some  small  quantity  of 
wine,  if  God  enable  us ;  the  vines  growing  thin  with  us,  and  we 
not  having  yet  any  leisure  to  plant  vineyards. 

But  now  having  some  leisure  to  discourse  of  the  motives  for 
other  men's  coming  to  this  place,  or  their  abstaining  from  it,  after 
my  brief  manner  I  say  this :  that  if  any  come  hither  to  plant  for 
worldly  ends,  that  can  live  well  at  home,  he  commits  an  error,  of 
which  he  will  soon  repent  him  •  but  if  for  spiritual,  and  that  no 
particular  obstacle  hinder  his  removal,  he  may  find  here  what 
may  well  content  him,  viz.,  materials  to  build,  fuel  to  burn,  ground 
to  plant,  seas  and  rivers  to  fish  in,  a  pure  air  to  breathe  in,  good 


APPENDIX  A  445 

water  to  drink,  till  wine  or  beer  can  be  made ;  which,  together 
with  the  cows,  hogs,  and  goats  brought  hither  already,  may  suf 
fice  for  food ;  for  as  for  fowl  and  venison,  they  are  dainties  here 
as  well  as  in  England.  For  clothes  and  bedding,  they  must  bring 
them  with  them,  till  time  and  industry  produce  them  here.  In 
a  word,  we  yet  enjoy  little  to  be  envied,  but  endure  much  to  be 
pitied  in  the  sickness  and  mortality  of  our  people.  And  I  do 
the  more  willingly  use  this  open  and  plain  dealing,  lest  other  men 
should  fall  short  of  their  expectations  when  they  come  hither,  as 
we  to  our  great  prejudice  did,  by  means  of  letters  sent  us  from 
hence  into  England,  wherein  honest  men,  out  of  a  desire  to  draw 
over  others  to  them,  wrote  somewhat  hyperbolically  of  many 
things  here.  If  any  godly  men,  out  of  religious  ends,  will  come 
over  to  help  us  in  the  good  work  we  are  about,  I  think  they  can 
not  dispose  of  themselves  nor  of  their  estates  more  to  God's 
glory  and  the  furtherance  of  their  own  reckoning.  But  they 
must  not  be  of  the  poorer  sort  yet,  for  divers  years;  for  we  have 
found  by  experience  that  they  have  hindered,  not  furthered  the 
work.  And  for  profane  and  debauched  person s,  their  oversight 
in  coming  hither  is  wondered  at,  where  they  shall  find  nothing  to 
content  them.  If  there  be  any  endued  with  grace,  and  furnished 
with  means  to  feed  themselves  and  theirs  for  eighteen  months, 
and  to  build  and  plant,  let  them  come  over  into  our  Macedonia 
and  help  us,  and  not  spend  themselves  and  their  estates  in  a  less 
profitable  employment.  For  others,  I  conceive  they  are  not  yet 
fitted  for  this  business. 

Touching  the  discouragement  which  the  sickness  and  mortality 
which  every  first  year  hath  seized  upon  us  and  those  of  Plym 
outh,  as  appeareth  before,  may  give  to  such  who  have  cast  any 
thoughts  this  way  (of  which  mortality  it  may  be  said  of  us  almost 
as  of  the  Egyptians,  that  there  is  not  a  house  where  there  is  not 
one  dead,  and  in  some  houses  many),  the  natural  causes  seem 
to  be  in  the  want  of  warm  lodging  and  good  diet,  to  which 
Englishmen  are  habituated  at  home,  and  in  the  sudden  increase 
of  heat  which  they  endure  that  are  landed  here  in  summer,  the 
salt  meats  at  sea  having  prepared  their  bodies  thereto ;  for  those 
only  these  two  last  years  died  of  fevers  who  landed  in  June  and 
July  -,  as  those  of  Plymouth,  who  landed  in  winter,  died  of  the 
scurvy ;  as  did  our  poorer  sort,  whose  houses  and  bedding  kept 
them  not  sufficiently  warm,  nor  their  diet  sufficiently  in  heart. 


446  APPENDIX  A 

Other  causes  God  may  have,  as  our  faithful  minister,  Mr.  Wilson, 
lately  handling  that  point,  showed  unto  us,  which  I  forbear  to 
mention,  leaving  this  matter  to  the  further  dispute  of  physicians 
and  divines. 

Wherefore  to  return,  upon  the  $d  of  January  died  the  daughter 
of  Mr.  Sharpe,  a  godly  virgin,  making  a  comfortable  end,  after  a 
long  sickness.  The  Plantation  here  received  not  the  like  loss  of 
any  woman  since  we  came  hither,  and  therefore  she  well  deserves 
to  be  remembered  in  this  place. 

And  to  add  to  our  sorrows,  upon  the  5th  day  came  letters  to 
us  from  Plymouth,  advertising  us  of  this  sad  accident  following : 
About  a  fortnight  before,  there  went  from  us  in  a  shallop  to 
Plymouth  six  men  and  a  girl,  who,  in  an  hour  or  two  before 
night,  on  the  same  day  they  went  forth,  came  near  to  the  mouth 
of  Plymouth  bay ;  but  the  wind,  then  coming  strongly  from  the 
shore,  kept  them  from  entering,  and  drove  them  to  sea-wards ; 
and  they  having  no  better  means  to  help  themselves,  let  down 
their  killock,  that  so  they  might  drive  the  more  slowly,  and  be 
nearer  land  when  the  storm  should  cease.  But  the  stone  slip 
ping  out  of  the  killock,  and  thereby  they  driving  faster  than  they 
thought  all  the  night,  in  the  morning,  when  they  looked  out,  they 
found  themselves  out  of  sight  of  land,  which  so  astonished  them 
(the  frost  being  extreme,  and  their  hands  so  benumbed  with  cold 
that  they  could  not  handle  their  oars,  neither  had  any  compass 
to  steer  by),  that  they  gave  themselves  for  lost,  and  lay  down  to 
die  quietly.  Only  one  man,  who  had  more  natural  heat  and  cour 
age  remaining  than  the  rest,  continued  so  long  looking  for  land 
that,  the  morning  waxing  clearer,  he  discovered  land,  and  with 
difficulty  hoisted  the  sail ;  and  so  the  wind  a  little  turning,  two 
days  after  they  were  driven  from  Plymouth  bay,  they  arrived  at 
a  shore  unknown  unto  them.  The  stronger  helped  the  weaker 
out  of  the  boat,  and  taking  their  sail  on  shore,  made  a  shelter 
thereof,  and  made  a  fire.  But  the  frost  had  so  pierced  their 
bodies,  that  one  of  them  died  about  three  days  after  their  land 
ing,  and  most  of  the  others  grew  worse,  both  in  body  and  cour 
age,  no  hope  of  relief  being  within  their  view.  Well,  yet  the  Lord 
pitying  them,  and  two  of  them,  who  only  could  use  their  legs, 
going  abroad  rather  to  seek  than  to  hope  to  find  help,  they  met 
first  with  two  Indian  women,  who  sent  unto  them  an  Indian  man, 
who  informed  them  that  Plymouth  was  within  fifty  miles,  and 


APPENDIX  A  447 

offered  together  to  procure  relief  for  them,  which  they  gladly 
accepting,  he  performed,  and  brought  them  three  men  from  Plym 
outh  (the  governor  and  Council  of  Plymouth  liberally  reward 
ing  the  Indian,  and  took  care  for  the  safety  of.  our  people),  who 
brought  them  all  alive  in  their  boat  thither,  save  one  man,  who, 
with  a  guide,  chose  rather  to  go  over  land  ;  but  quickly  fell  lame 
by  the  way,  and  getting  harbour  at  a  trucking-house  the  Plymo- 
theans  had  in  those  parts,  there  he  yet  abides.  At  the  others' 
landing  at  Plymouth,  one  of  them  died  as  he  was  taken  out  of 
the  boat.  Another,  and  he  the  worst  in  the  company,  rotted 
from  the  feet  upwards,  where  the  frost  had  gotten  most  hold, 
and  so  died  within  a  few  days.  The  other  three,  after  God  had 
blessed  the  chirurgeon's  skill  used  towards  them,  returned  safe 
to  us.  I  set  down  this  the  more  largely,  partly  because  the  first 
man  that  died  was  a  godly  man  of  our  congregation,  one  Richard 
Garrad,  who,  at  the  time  of  his  death,  more  feared  he  should  dis 
honor  God  than  cared  for  his  own  life ;  as  also  because  divers 
boats  have  been  in  manifest  peril  this  year,  yet  the  Lord  pre 
served  them  all,  this  one  excepted. 

Amongst  those  who  died  about  the  end  of  this  January,  there 
was  a  girl  of  eleven  years  old,  the  daughter  of  one  John  Ruggles 
of  whose  family  and  kindred  died  so  many,  that  for  some  reason 
it  was  matter  of  observation  amongst  us ;  who,  in  the  time  of  her 
sickness,  expressed  to  the  minister,  and  to  those  about  her,  so 
much  faith  and  assurance  of  salvation  as  is  rarely  found  in  any 
of  that  age ;  which  I  thought  not  unworthy  here  to  commit  to 
memory.  And  if  any  tax  me  for  wasting  paper  with  recording 
these  small  matters,  such  may  consider  that  little  mothers  bring 
forth  little  children  ;  small  commonwealths,  matters  of  small  mo 
ment,  the  reading  whereof  yet  is  not  to  be  despised  by  the  judi 
cious,  because  small  things  in  the  beginning  of  natural  or  politic 
bodies  are  as  remarkable  as  greater  in  bodies  full  grown. 

Upon  the  5th  of  February  arrived  here  Mr.  Peirce,  with  the 
ship  Lion,  of  Bristow,  with  supplies  of  victuals  from  England, 
who  had  set  forth  from  Bristow  the  ist  of  December  before.  He 
had  a  stormy  passage  hither,  and  lost  one  of  his  sailors  not  far 
from  our  shore,  who  in  a  tempest  having  helped  to  take  in  the 
spritsail,  lost  his  hold  as  he  was  coming  down,  and  fell  into  the 
sea,  where,  after  long  swimming,  he  was  drowned,  to  the  great 
dolor  of  those  in  the  ship,  who  beheld  so  lamentable  a  spectacle 


448  APPENDIX  A 

without  being  able  to  minister  help  to  him,  the  sea  was  so  high, 
and  the  ship  drove  so  fast  before  the  wind,  though  her  sails  were 
taken  down.  By  this  ship  we  understood  of  the  fight  of  three  of 
our  ships  and  two  English  men-of-war  coming  out  of  the  Straits, 
with  fourteen  Dunkirkers,  upon  the  coast  of  England,  as  they  re 
turned  from  us  in  the  end  of  the  last  summer ;  who,  through 
God's  goodness,  with  the  loss  of  some  thirteen  or  fourteen  men 
out  of  our  three  ships,  and  I  know  not  how  many  out  of  the 
two  men-of-war,  got  at  length  clear  of  them ;  the  Charles,  one  of 
our  three,  a  stout  ship  of  three  hundred  tons,  being  so  torn,  that 
she  had  not  much  of  her  left  whole  above  water.  By  this  ship 
we  also  understood  the  death  of  many  of  those  who  went  from 
us  the  last  year  to  Old  England,  as  likewise  of  the  mortality 
there ;  whereby  we  see  there  are  graves  in  other  places  as  well 
as  with  us. 

Also,  to  increase  the  heap  of  our  sorrows,  we  received  adver 
tisement  by  letters  from  our  friends  in  England,  and  by  the 
reports  of  those  who  came  hither  in  this  ship  to  abide  with 
us  (who  were  about  twenty-six),  that  they  who  went  discon 
tentedly  from  us  the  last  year,  out  of  their  evil  affections  towards 
us,  have  raised  many  false  and  scandalous  reports  against  us, 
affirming  us  to  be  Brownists  in  religion,  and  ill  affected  to  our 
state  at  home,  and  that  these  vile  reports  have  won  credit  with 
some  who  formerly  wished  us  well.  But  we  do  desire,  and  can 
not  but  hope,  that  wise  and  impartial  men  will  at  length  consider 
that  such  malecontents  have  ever  pursued  this  manner  of  casting 
dirt,  to  make  others  seem  as  foul  as  themselves,  and  that  our 
godly  friends,  to  whom  we  have  been  known,  will  not  easily 
believe  that  we  are  so  soon  turned  from  the  profession  we  so 
long  have  made  in  our  native  country.  And  for  our  further  clear 
ing,  I  truly  affirm,  that  I  know  no  one  person,  who  came  over 
with  us  the  last  year,  to  be  altered  in  judgment  and  affection, 
either  in  ecclesiastical  or  civil  respects,  since  our  coming  hither. 
But  we  do  continue  to  pray  daily  for  our  sovereign  lord  the  King, 
the  Queen,  the  Prince,  the  royal  blood,  the  council  and  whole 
state,  as  duty  binds  us  to  do,  and  reason  persuades  others  to 
believe.  For  how  ungodly  and  unthankful  should  we  be,  if  we 
should  not  thus  do,  who  came  hither  by  virtue  of  his  Majesty's 
letters  patent,  and  under  his  gracious  protection,  under  which 
shelter  we  hope  to  live  safely,  and  from  whose  kingdom  and  sub- 


APPENDIX  A  449 

jects  we  now  have  received  and  hereafter  expect  relief.  Let  our 
friends  therefore  give  no  credit  to  such  malicious  aspersions,  but 
be  more  ready  to  answer  for  us  than  we  hear  they  have  been. 
We  are  not  like  those  which  have  dispensations  to  lie ;  but  as  we 
were  free  enough  in  Old  England  to  turn  our  insides  outwards, 
sometimes  to  our  disadvantage,  very  unlike  is  it  that  now,  being 
procul  a  fulmine,  we  should  be  so  unlike  ourselves.  Let  there 
fore  this  be  sufficient  for  us  to  say,  and  others  to  hear  in  this 
matter. 

Amongst  others  who  died  about  this  time  was  Mr.  Robert 
Welden,  whom,  in  the  time  of  his  sickness,  we  had  chosen  to  be 
captain  of  a  hundred  foot ;  but  before  he  took  possession  of  his 
place,  he  died,  the  i6th  of  this  February,  and  was  buried  as  a 
soldier,  with  three  volleys  of  shot. 

Upon  the  22d  of  February  we  held  a  general  day  of  Thanks 
giving  throughout  the  whole  colony  for  the  safe  arrival  of  the 
ship  which  came  last  with  our  provisions. 

About  this  time  we  apprehended  one  Robert  Wright,  who  had 
been  sometimes  a  linen  draper  in  Newgate  market,  and  after  that 
a  brewer  on  the  Bank  side  and  on  Thames  street.  This  man, 
we  lately  understood,  had  made  an  escape  in  London  from  those 
who  came  to  his  house  to  apprehend  him  for  clipping  the  King's 
coin  [one  or  two  words  missing\  had  stolen  after  us.  Upon  his 
examination  he  confessed  the  fact,  and  his  escape,  but  affirmed 
he  had  the  King's  pardon  for  it  under  the  broad  seal ;  which  he 
yet  not  being  able  to  prove,  and  one  to  whom  he  was  known 
charging  him  with  untruth  in  some  of  his  answers,  we  therefore 
committed  him  to  prison,  to  be  sent  by  the  next  ship  into  Eng 
land. 

Likewise  we  were  lately  informed  that  one  Mr.  Gardiner,  who 
arrived  here  a  month  before  us,  and  who  had  passed  here  for  a 
knight,  by  the  name  of  Sir  Christopher  Gardiner,  all  this  while 
was  no  knight,  but  instead  thereof  had  two  wives  now  living  in  a 
house  at  London,  one  of  which  came  about  September  last  from 
Paris  in  France  (where  her  husband  had  left  her  years  before)  to 
London,  where  she  had  heard  her  husband  had  married  a  second 
wife,  and  whom,  by  inquiring,  she  found  out.  And  they  both 
condoling  each  other's  estate,  wrote  both  their  letters  to  the  gov 
ernor  (by  Mr.  Peirce,  who  had  conference  with  both  women  in 
the  presence  of  Mr.  Allerton,  of  Plymouth),  his  first  wife  desiring 


450  APPENDIX  A 

his  return  and  conversion,  his  second  his  destruction  for  his  foul 
abuse,  and  for  robbing  her  of  her  estate,  of  a  part  whereof  she 
sent  an  inventory  hither,  comprising  therein  many  rich  jewels, 
much  plate,  and  costly  linen.  This  man  had  in  his  family  (and 
yet  hath)  a  gentlewoman,  whom  he  called  his  kinswoman,  and 
whom  one  of  his  wives  in  her  letter  names  Mary  Grove,  affirming 
her  to  be  a  known  harlot,  whose  sending  back  into  Old  England 
she  also  desired,  together  with  her  husband.  Shortly  after  this 
intelligence,  we  sent  to  the  house  of  the  said  Gardiner  (which  was 
seven  miles  from  us),  to  apprehend  him  and  his  woman,  with  a 
purpose  to  send  them  both  to  London  to  his  wives  there.  But 
the  man,  who,  having  heard  some  rumor  from  some  who  came  in 
the  ship,  that  letters  were  come  to  the  governor,  requiring  justice 
against  him,  was  readily  prepared  for  flight,  so  soon  as  he  should 
see  any  crossing  the  river,  or  likely  to  apprehend  him ;  which  he 
accordingly  performed.  For  he  dwelling  alone,  easily  discerned 
such  who  were  sent  to  take  him,  half  a  mile  before  they  ap 
proached  his  house,  and  with  his  piece  on  his  neck,  went  his  way, 
as  most  men  think,  northwards,  hoping  to  find  some  English  there 
like  to  himself.  But  likely  enough  it  is,  which  way  soever  he 
went,  he  will  lose  himself  in  the  woods,  and  be  stopped  with  some 
rivers  in  his  passing,  notwithstanding  his  compass  in  his  pocket, 
and  so  with  hunger  and  cold  will  perish  before  he  find  the  place 
he  seeks.  His  woman  was  brought  unto  us,  and  confessed  her 
name,  and  that  her  mother  dwells  eight  miles  from  Boirdly,  in 
Salopshire,  and  that  Gardiner's  father  dwells  in  or  near  Glouces 
ter,  and  was  (as  she  said)  .brother  to  Stephen  -Gardiner,  bishop 
of  Winchester,  and  did  disinherit  his  son  for  his  twenty-six  years' 
absence  in  his  travels  in  France,  Italy,  Germany,  and  Turkey; 
that  he  had  (as  he  told  her)  married  a  wife  in  his  travels,  from 
whom  he  was  divorced,  and  the  woman  long  since  dead ;  that 
both  herself  and  Gardiner  were  Catholics  till  of  late,  but  were 
now  Protestants  ;  that  she  takes  him  to  be  a  knight,  but  never 
heard  when  he  was  knighted.  The  woman  was  impenitent  and 
close,  confessing  no  more  than  was  wrested  from  her  by  her  own 
contradictions.  So  we  have  taken  order  to  send  her  to  the  two 
wives  in  Old  England,  to  search  her  further. 

Upon  the  8th  of  March,  from  after  it  was  fair  daylight  until 
about  eight  of  the  clock  in  the  forenoon,  there  flew  over  all  the 
towns  in  our  plantations  so  many  flocks  of  doves,  each  flock  con- 


APPENDIX  A  451 

taining  many  thousands,  and  some  so  many  that  they  obscured  the 
light,  that  it  passeth  credit,  if  but  the  truth  should  be  written ; 
and  the  thing  was  the  more  strange,  because  I  scarce  remember 
to  have  seen  ten  doves  since  I  came  into  the  country.  They 
were  all  turtles,  as  appeared  by  divers  of  them  we  killed  flying, 
somewhat  bigger  than  those  of  Europe,  and  they  flew  from  the 
northeast  to  the  southwest ;  but  what  it  portends,  I  know  not. 

The  ship  now  waits  but  for  wind,  which  when  it  blows,  there 
are  ready  to  go  aboard  therein  for  England,  Sir  Richard  Salton.- 
stall,  Mr.  Sharpe,  Mr.  Coddington,  and  many  others ;  the  most 
whereof  purpose  to  return  to  us  again,  if  God  will.  In  the  mean 
time,  we  are  left  a  people  poor  and  contemptible,  yet  such  as 
trust  in  God,  and  are  contented  with  our  condition,  being  well 
assured  that  he  will  not  fail  us  nor  forsake  us. 

I  had  almost  forgotten  to  add  this,  that  the  wheat  we  received 
by  this  last  ship  stands  us  in  thirteen  or  fourteen  shillings  a 
strike,  and  the  pease  about  eleven  shillings  a  strike,  besides  the 
adventure,  which  is  worth  three  or  four  shillings  a  strike,  which 
is  a  higher  price  than  I  ever  tasted  bread  of  before. 

Thus,  Madam,  I  have,  as  I  can,  told  your  Honor  all  our  mat 
ters,  knowing  your  wisdom  can  make  good  use  thereof.  If  I  live 
not  to  perform  the  like  office  of  my  duty  hereafter,  likely  it  is 
some  other  will  do  it  better. 

Before  the  departure  of  the  ship  (which  yet  was  wind-bound), 
there  came  unto  us  Sagamore  John  and  one  of  his  subjects,  re 
quiring  satisfaction  for  the  burning  of  two  wigwams  by  some  of 
the  English,  which  wigwams  were  not  inhabited,  but  stood  in  a 
place  convenient  for  their  shelter,  when  upon  occasion  they 
should  travel  that  way.  By  examination  we  found  that  some 
English  fowlers,  having  retired  into  that  which  belonged  to  the 
subject,  and  leaving  a  fire  therein  carelessly,  which  they  had 
kindled  to  warm  them,  were  the , cause  of  burning  thereof.  For 
that  which  was  the  sagamore's,  we  could  find  no  certain  proof 
how  it  was  fired ;  yet,  lest  he  should  think  us  not  sedulous  enough 
to  find  it  out,  and  so  should  depart  discontentedly  from  us,  we 
gave  both  him  and  his  subject  satisfaction  for  them  both. 

The  like  accident  of  fire  also  befell  Mr.  Sharpe  and  Mr.  Col- 
borne  upon  the  i;th  of  this  March,  both  whose  houses  (which 
were  as  good  and  as  well  furnished  as  the  most  in  the  Plantation) 
were  in  two  hours'  space  burned  to  the  ground,  together  with 


452  APPENDIX  A 

much  of  their  household  stuff,  apparel,  and  other  things ;  as  also 
some  goods  of  others  who  sojourned  with  them  in  their  houses, 
God  so  pleasing  to  exercise  us  with  corrections  of  this  kind,  as 
he  hath  done  with  others.  For  the  prevention  whereof  in  our 
new  town,  intended  this  summer  to  be  builded,  we  have  ordered 
that  no  man  there  shall  build  his  chimney  with  wood,  nor  cover 
his  house  with  thatch,  which  was  readily  assented  unto,  for  that 
divers  other  houses  have  been  burned  since  our  arrival  (the  fire 
always  beginning  in  the  wooden  chimneys),  and  some  English 
wigwams,  which  have  taken  fire  in  the  roofs  covered  with  thatch 
or  boughs. 

And  that  this  ship  might  return  into  Old  England  with  heavy 
news,  upon  the  i8th  day  of  March  came  one  from  Salem,  and 
told  us  that  upon  the  i5th  thereof  there  died  Mrs.  Skelton,  the 
wife  of  the  other  minister  there ;  who,  about  eighteen  or  twenty 
days  before,  handling  cold  things  in  a  sharp  morning,  put  herself 
into  a  most  violent  fit  of  the  wind  colic  and  vomiting,  which  con 
tinuing,  she  at  length  fell  into  a  fever,  and  so  died,  as  before. 
She  was  a  godly  and  a  helpful  woman,  and  indeed  the  main  pillar 
of  her  family,  having  left  behind  her  a  husband  and  four  children, 
weak  and  helpless,  who  can  scarce  tell  how  to  live  without  her. 
She  lived  desired,  and  died  lamented,  and  well  deserves  to  be 
honorably  remembered. 

Upon  the  25th  of  this  March,  one  of  Watertown  having  lost  a 
calf,  and  about  ten  of  the  clock  at  night  hearing  the  howling  of 
some  wolves  not  far  off,  raised  many  of  his  neighbours  out  of 
their  beds,  that,  by  discharging  their  muskets  near  about  the 
place  where  he  heard  the  wolves,  he  might  so  put  the  wolves  to 
flight,  and  save  his  calf.  The  wind  serving  fit  to  carry  the  report 
of  the  muskets  to  Roxbury,  three  miles  off,  at  such  a  time,  the 
inhabitants  there  took  an  alarm,  beat  up  their  drum,  armed  them 
selves,  and  sent  in  post  to  us  to  Boston,  to  raise  us  also.  So  in 
the  morning,  the  calf  being  found  safe,  the  wolves  affrighted,  and 
our  danger  past,  we  went  merrily  to  breakfast. 

I  thought  to  have  ended  before ;  but  the  stay  of  the  ship,  and 
my  desire  to  inform  your  Honor  of  all  I  can,  hath  caused  this 
addition ;  and  every  one  having  warned  to  prepare  for  the  ship's 
departure  to-morrow,  I  am  now,  this  28th  of  March,  1631,  sealing 
my  letters. 


APPENDIX  B  453 

APPENDIX   B 

GOVERNOR  JOSEPH   DUDLEY 

It  is  incumbent  upon  us  in  writing  the  Life  of  Governor  Thomas 
Dudley,  to  make  mention  of  his  very  able  and  distinguished  son, 
Joseph  Dudley,  also  in  due  time  both  president  and  governor  of 
Massachusetts,  receiving  at  different  times  many  other  positions 
of  trust  and  responsibility  from  the  crown  and  colony.  This 
concerns  us  more  because  he  was  conspicuous  in  a  colonial  revo 
lution  involving  the  religion  and  politics  of  England  and  New 
England,  in  which  the  conflict  was  so  deep  and  the  public  mind 
so  disturbed  that  intervening  generations  have  preserved  and 
cherished  considerable  of  the  partisan  vigor  and  championship 
of  the  various  coteries. 

He  was  the  son  of  Thomas  Dudley  by  his  second  wife.  He 
was  born  in  Roxbury,  September  23,  1647,  and  as  his  father  died 
in  1653,  at  seventy-seven  years  of  age,  it  is  evident  that  he  had 
very  little  to  do  with  the  education  of  his  son,  who  survived  his 
father,  living  at  the  old  homestead  in  Roxbury  until  April  2, 
1720. 

He  graduated  at  Harvard  in  1665,  and  studied  theology. 
Hutchinson  says  that,  "  If  various  dignities  had  been  known  in 
the  New  England  churches,  possibly  he  would  have  lived  and 
died  a  clergyman  ;  but  without  this,  nothing  could  be  more  dis 
sonant  from  his  genius.  He  soon  turned  his  thoughts  to  civil 
affairs ;  was  first  a  deputy  or  representative  of  the  town  of  Rox 
bury  ;  then  an  assistant ;  then  agent  for  the  colony  in  England, 
where  he  laid  a  foundation  for  a  commission,  soon  after  appoint 
ing  him  president  of  the  council,  first  for  Massachusetts  Bay 
only,  but,  under  Andros,  for  all  New  England."1  He, was,  until 
he  went  to  England,  admired  and  sought  by  everybody.  He  was 
influential  because  of  his  father  and  also  because  of  his  own  great 
ability  and  culture.  When  he  was  thirty-four  years  old,  in  1681, 
he  had  then  been  four  years  commissioner  of  the  United  Col 
onies.  He  was  in  the  battle  of  the  Narragansetts  in  1675,  and 
gave  an  account  of  it  which  still  exists. 

When  he  went  to  England  in  1682,  as  the  agent  of  the  colony, 
with  an  associate  to  protect  and  save  the  old  charter  that  Win- 
1  Hutchinson,  Hist.  Mass.,  ii.  213. 


454  APPENDIX   B 

throp  and  his  father  had  brought  over  in  the  Arbella  in  1630,  he 
seemed  to  carry  with  him  the  hopes  and  confidence  of  his  fellow- 
citizens  without  distinctions  of  party.  It  was  at  once  evident 
that  the  mission  was  useless  ;  that  the  restoration  of  Charles  II., 
the  destruction  of  the  Commonwealth,  and  of  the  powerful  Puri 
tan  party  which  had  cherished  the  government  of  Massachusetts 
and  its  religion,  had  each  and  all  contributed  to  this  result.  The 
throne  of  the  Stuarts  and  the  Church  of  England  were  supreme, 
with  a  fixed  purpose  that  Massachusetts  should  conform,  and  no 
longer  assume,  under  an  ancient  charter,  the  liberties,  civil  and 
religious,  of  an  independent  state. 

Dudley  at  once  found  himself  in  a  revolution,  which  he  did  not 
create,  which  he  could  neither  thwart  nor  direct.  It  was  as  irre 
sistible  as  fate,  a  sequence  of  the  growth  and  progress  on  both 
sides  of  the  sea  for  half  a  century.  The  existing  leaven  in  church 
and  state  must  extend  throughout  the  kingdom,  creating  conform 
ity  and  homogeneous  dominion  everywhere. 

Edward  Randolph  was  the  evil  genius  who,  as  early  as  October 
12,  1676,  aroused  the  attention  of  the  home  government  to  the 
independent  tendencies  of  the  New  England  colonies,  and  their 
antipathy  to  the  Church  of  England.1 

Thoughtful  Americans  were  then  forced  at  once  to  decide  be 
tween  loyalty  to  the  throne  or  rebellion.  A  similar  question  was 
presented  to  the  Southern  people  in  our  Civil  War :  allegiance  to 
the  State  or  loyalty  to  the  United  States.  The  divine  right  of 
rebellion  is  conceded,  but  it  was  not  yet  expedient;  all  things 
were  in  preparation,  but  it  would  require  nearly  one  hundred 
years  of  growth  to  perfect  everything  for  the  Declaration  of  Inde 
pendence,  —  for  Bunker  Hill,  Saratoga,  and  Yorktown.  Yet 
there  were  even  then,  in  1776,  multitudes  of  the  best  people  who 
took  the  same  ground  that  Dudley  had  done  earlier,  continued  to 
be  tories  and  loyal  to  the  crown. 

Dudley  made  friends  in  England,  as  he  had  the  good  fortune 
always  to  do.  He  had  the  quick  perception  and  intelligence  to 
discover  at  once  the  manifest  tendency  of  events,  and  the  wisdom 
not  to  contend  in  a  battle  already  hopelessly  lost.  There  is  no 
charge  that  he  did  not  accomplish  in  this  agency  all  that  could 
have  been  done,  or  that  he  betrayed  the  cause  of  the  colony  or 
gave  aid  and  comfort  to  its  enemies  in  his  official  position.  Wil- 
1  Perry's  Hist,  of  the  Church  in  Mass.,  1-24. 


APPENDIX   B  455 

Ham  Stoughton  wrote  to  him  in  London  in  August,  1683,  "Great 
revolutions,  I  see,  are  hastening  everywhere ;  and  since  our  poor 
corporation  is  like  to  outlive  the  charter  of  so  famous  a  city  as 
London,  we  must  compose  ourselves  with  the  less  regret  to  expect 
and  entertain  our  own  dissolution."  Dudley  was  the  means  of  dif 
fusing  a  broader  nationality,  of  creating  through  closer  contact  with 
Europe,  especially  with  the  mother  country  in  her  wars  and  strug 
gles,  a  strong  and  well-sustained  public  confidence,  which  grew, 
and  found  New  England  prepared  in  1776  to  assert  her  nation 
ality.  If  she  had  entered  this  conflict  earlier  and  without  the 
experiences  of  these  years,  the  consequences  to  liberty  on  this 
continent  might  have  been  disastrous;  but  liberty  the  world 
over  has  in  recent  years  received  its  greatest  impulse  from 
America. 

He  returned  to  Boston,  October  23,  1683.  He  lost  his  election 
of  assistant  in  1684,  but  secured  it  again  the  next  year.  He  was 
commissioned  by  James  II.,  September  27,  1685,  as  president  of 
Massachusetts,  New  Hampshire,  Maine,  and  Rhode  Island  ;  he 
served  nearly  seven  months,  when  Andros  arrived  and  took  his 
place,  because  he  was  not  satisfactory  to  the  crown  nor  accept 
able  to  the  people.  A  native  who  could  be  a  servant  of  the  king 
then  was  in  about  the  same  position  to  his  neighbors  as  the 
Jew,  nineteen  centuries  ago,  who  collected  taxes  for  Rome  from 
his  countrymen.  He  was  made  a  member  of  the  council  of 
Andros,  and  became  president  of  it,  and  resisted  the  attacks 
of  Andros  upon  the  titles  of  the  land  in  defense  of  the  people, 
but  sustained  the  hated  government. 

When  the  government  of  Andros  was  overturned,  in  1689,  he 
and  Dudley  were  both  retained  in  prison  twenty  weeks  in  Boston, 
and  then  sent  to  England.  This  evidently  rendered  Dudley 
popular  in  London,  and  the  next  year  but  one  he  was  created 
chief  justice  of  New  York  (May  15,  1691),  but  was  removed 
because  he  was  not  a  resident,  in  I692.1  He  returned  to  Eng- 

1  Hutchinson  states  that  Dudley  "  was  charged  with  dispensing  sumrmim 
jus  to  [Jacob]  Leisler  [in  New  York  in  1691],  and  incurring  an  aggravated 
guilt  of  blood  beyond  that  of  a  common  murderer.  The  other  party,  no  doubt, 
would  have  charged  the  failure  of  justice  upon  him,  if  Leisler  had  been  acquit 
ted."  (Hutchinson,  ii.  214.) 

Leisler  was  a  weak  man,  intoxicated  with  the  love  of  power,  and  refused  at 
the  proper  time  to  deliver  up  the  government  to  the  new  governor,  Henry 
Sloughter,  on  March  19,  1691.  (Valentine's  Hist.  City  of  N.  Y.,  201 ;  New 


456  APPENDIX   B 

land  in  1693,  and  remained  there  until  1702,  when  he  came  to 
New  England  bearing  the  commission  of  Queen  Anne  appoint 
ing  him  governor  of  Massachusetts,  an  office  which  he  now  held 
continuously  during  the  remainder  of  her  life,  for  about  thirteen 
years,  or  until  he  was  seventy  years  old,  with  a  stormy  adminis 
tration  in  the  beginning,  but  with  popularity  and  success  in  its 
closing  years. 

York  Hist.  Soc.  Coll.,  ist  series,  iv.  96.)  Valentine  says  the  government 
called  a  special  court  of  oyer  and  terminer,  before  which  Leisler  was  brought 
about  April  9,  1691,  "on  the  charge  of  traitorously  levying  war  against  the 
sovereign"  (Hist.  City  of  N.  Y.,  204),  and  found  guilty.  "On  the  I4th  of 
May  the  council  requested  the  governor  to  carry  the  sentence  into  effect,  and 
thus  allay  the  ferment  in.  the  public  mind,  which  was  every  day  increasing." 
(Ib.,  205.)  Two  days  after,  the  Assembly  of  New  York  declared  their  approba 
tion  of  the  execution,  which  took  place  on  the  i6th.  (Ib.,  205.)  There  is  an 
unsupported  tradition  that  Sloughter  was  intoxicated  when  he  signed  the  war 
rant.  (N.  Y.  Hist.  Soc.  Coll.,  ist  series,  iv.  103,  104.) 

Bancroft  says,  "  Joseph  Dudley,  of  New  England,  now  chief  justice  in 
New  York,  giving  the  opinion  that  Leisler  had  had  no  legal  authority  what 
ever."  (Bancroft's  Hist.,  iii.  54.)  Dudley  was  not  chief  justice  of  New  York 
when  Leisler  was  tried,  April  9.  He  was  appointed  chief  justice  May  15, 
1691.  Dudley  was  a  member  of  the  council,  with  six  others,  whose  names  are 
given  in  New  York  Hist.  Soc.  Coll.,  ist  series,  iv.  96.  The  lords  commission 
ers  of  trade  in  England  reported  on  the  whole  matter,  March  n,  1692,  "that 
they  were  humbly  of  opinion  that  Jacob  Leisler  and  Jacob  Milborne,  deceased, 
were  condemned  and  suffered  according  to  law."  (New  York  Hist.  Coll.,  ist 
series,  iv.  104.) 

There  had  been  a  political  revolution  in  New  York,  in  which  either  party,  if 
it  succeeded,  was  determined  upon  the  destruction  of  the  other.  Dudley  was 
on  the  side  of  prerogative  and  the  British  authority,  while  his  enemies  in 
Massachusetts  were  on  the  other  side,  and  have  never  ceased  to  manifest  their 
displeasure  with  him.  The  court  (of  which  we  do  not  find  that  he  was  a  mem 
ber),  the  council,  of  which  he  was  a  member,  the  assembly,  of  which  he  was 
not  a  member,  were  all  directly  involved  in  promoting  the  execution,  which  in 
our  period  of  prisons  and  of  greater  humanity  would  have  been  avoided.  There 
can  be  no  justice  in  heaping  the  great  burden  of  discredit  upon  him  who,  in 
any  event,  must  share  it  with  many  others  if  there  is  blame. 

In  1695  Parliament  reversed  the  attainder,  which  was  a  concomitant  then  to 
a  conviction  of  treason,  and  restored  the  property  to  the  children.  This  is 
quite  different  from  voting  an  indemnity  or  assailing  the  original  conviction  of 
treason.  (New  York  Hist.  Soc.  Coll.,  ist  series,  iv.  104.)  This  was  a  simple 
act  of  humanity  and  justice.  Our  fathers,  with  the  same  tender  compassion 
for  innocent,  defenseless  children,  ordained  in  the  Constitution  of  the  United 
States  that  there  shall  be  no  attainder  of  treason  beyond  the  "life  of  the 
person  attainted."  (Sparks's  Am.  Biog.,  2d  series,  iii.  181 ;  Appleton's  Biog. 
Diet. ;  Moore's  Mem.  Amer.  Governors,  390.) 


APPENDIX   B  457 

Dudley  had  been,  during  his  last  visit  to  England,  eight  years 
lieutenant-governor  of  the  Isle  of  Wight,  and  "for  several  of 
those  years  the  representative  in  Parliament  of  one  of  the  island 
boroughs."  l  He  must  have  been  now  an  Episcopalian  under 
the  Test  Act  of  1673  to  1828,  to  have  had  a  seat  in  Parliament. 
He  is  said  to  have  been  the  first  native-born  American  who  ever 
sat  in  Parliament.  The  date  of  his  first  church  connection  we 
have  not  found.  He  joined  the  society  in  Boston  at  King's 
Chapel  in  1702,  and  became  an  active  vestryman  the  same  year 
that  he  became  governor.2  Dudley's  important  connection  with 
the  English  church  in  Boston  is  shown  by  his  correspondence  in 
Perry's  Hist,  of  the  Church  in  Massachusetts,  74-108. 

This  religious  position  of  a  native-born  Massachusetts  man, 
with  such  an  inheritance,  from  such  a  father,  who  was  the  very 
apostle  of  Puritanism  fifty  years  before,  steadfast  and  resolute, 
and  he  a  loyal  governor  in  these  degenerate  times,  was  more  than 
enough  to  set  both  of  the  Mathers  into  a  towering  rage  and  fill 
them,  as  they  sat  at  the  head  of  surviving  Puritanism,  with  the 
"  rancor  of  theological  hatred  "  and  bitter  jealousy  in  the  midst 
of  Dudley's  triumphs. 

This  furnishes  a  key  to  the  bitter  correspondence  between  the 
Mathers  and  Dudley  in  the  Mass.  Hist.  Coll.,  ist  series,  vol.  iii. 
pp.  126-138.  Also  to  that  "Memorial  of  the  Present  Deplorable 
State  of  New  England,"  published  in  1707,  and  another  in  1708, 
with  which  the  Mathers  were  believed  to  be  more  or  less  con 
nected.8  The  answer  to  the  first  of  these  pamphlets  is  "  A 
Modest  Enquiry,"  etc.,  associated  with  it  in  the  same  vol.  iii. 
p.  66*.  The  editors  of  the  Historical  Society  in  this  volume 
have  made  some  very  pertinent  remarks  in  their  Introductory 
Note,  p.  30*. 

"  In  view  of  these  pamphlets,  we  may  perhaps  conclude  that 
the  dissimulation  was  the  other  way.  It  looks  rather  as  if  Cot 
ton  Mather,  aspiring  to  the  presidency  of  the  college,  had  pre 
tended  friendship  to  Governor  Dudley  ;  and,  concluding  that  the 
election  would  be  settled  in  1707,  he  gave  vent  to  his  malice  by 
sending  to  England  the  manuscript  of  this  first  pamphlet." 

1  Mass.  Hist.  Soc.  Proc.,  2d  series,  ii.  172. 

2  Quincy's  Hist.  Harvard  Univ.,  i.  359. 

8  Mass.  Hist.  Coll.,  5th  series,  vi.  27*-i3i*;  Doyle's  English  in  America, 
ii.  472. 


458  APPENDIX   B 

There  are  two  charges  made  against  Dudley  in  these  pam 
phlets,  and  reiterated  since  that  day,  First,  that  he  was  ambi 
tious  ;  second,  that  he  was  inordinately  selfish,  and  took  and  gave 
bribes  in  office,  which  is  not  proven,  and  since  the  presumption 
of  innocency  protects  him  it  may  be  regarded  as  false.  The  first 
we  have  no  doubt  was  strictly  true ;  without  strong  ambition  he 
could  not  have  attained  to  the  great  trusts  imposed  on  him.  We 
must  regard  the  times,  to  be  just  to  Dudley,  and  consider  that 
in  the  midst  of  ardent  friends  he  was  surrounded  by  powerful 
enemies  who  exaggerated  faults  and  misrepresented  events. 
Governor  Hutchinson,  writing  only  half  a  century  later,  with 
these  pamphlets  before  him,  from  which  he  has  quoted  freely, 
says  of  Dudley,  "The  visible  increase  of  his  substance  made 
some  incredible  reports  of  gross  bribery  and  corruption  to  be 
very  easily  received ;  but,  in  times  when  party  spirit  prevails, 
what  will  not  a  governor's  enemies  believe,  however  injurious 
and  absurd  ?  .  .  .  Few  men  have  been  pursued  by  their  enemies 
with  greater  virulence,  and  few  have  been  supported  by  their 
friends  with  greater  zeal."  l 

It  is  a  frequent  method  in  our  own  times  to  measure  the  in 
tegrity  and  good  faith  of  public  men  by  their  poverty.  Nothing 
can  be  more  absurd,  as  the  sources  of  fortunes  are  so  many  and 
various.  It  has  been  recently  asserted  that  no  man  of  wealth 
has  been,  or  ever  can  be,  president  of  the  United  States,  with  the 
free  and  full  consent  of  the  American  people.  Moreover,  that 
we  take  extreme  care  to  keep  them  poor,  to  guarantee  their  purity 
and  virtue. 

Josiah  Quincy  informs  us  that  "  the  friends  of  the  college  and 
of  Dudley  did  not  fail  to  appear  in  his  defense,  and  to  express 
publicly  their  reprobation  of  the  conduct  of  the  Mathers."  The 
clergy  also  took  sides  on  the  occasion. 

The  pulpit,  according  to  the  too  frequent  custom  of  the  period, 
was  made  the  organ  of  crimination  and  recrimination.  The 
Mathers  "  preached  and  prayed  about  their  contest  with  the  gov 
ernor."  Mr.  Pemberton  "  resented  Cotton  Mather's  letter,"  and 
said  that  "  if  he  were  Dudley,  he  would  humble  him,  though  it 
cost  him  his  head."  And  Colman,  preaching  at  the  lecture  in 
Boston,  treated  the  topics  of  "  envy  and  revenge,"  in  connection 
with  the  question  whether  "the  spirit  was  truly  regenerated  or 
1  Hist.  Mass.,  ii.  213. 


APPENDIX   B  459 

no,"  in  a  manner  to  be  "  reckoned  that  he  lashed  "  the  Mathers 
and  their  party.1 

Mr.  J.  A.  Doyle,  who  has  recently  entered  with  true  historic 
spirit  into  this  distracted  period  and  its  controversies,  says,  "  No 
one  can  read  the  pamphlets  against  Dudley  and  not  trace  the 
hand  of  Cotton  Mather,"  —  the  hero  and  centre  of  the  witchcraft 
delusion.  "  At  the  same  time  it  was  clear  that  the  attacks  on 
the  governor  had  produced  little  effect  in  England."  2  He  says 
further,  that  "  there  is  no  distinct  evidence  that  Dudley  was  a 
corrupt  man.  It  would  seem  rather  as  if,  in  his  case,  cupidity 
was  overruled  and  subdued  by  ambition.  To  tower  over  his 
countrymen  as  the  representative  of  English  ideas  and  interests, 
raised  above  petty  provincial  views,  seems  to  have  been  Dudley's 
guiding  object.  .  .  .  Nor  is  there  anything  to  forbid  the  belief 
that  he  at  least  connived  at  corruption,  though  he  did  not  himself 
profit  by  it."  The  burden  of  proof  is  on  the  person  who  suggests 
this  allegation  of  connivance  without  evidence.  The  presump 
tion  of  innocence  remains  strong  and  unbroken.  Who  would  in 
recent  times  have  the  audacity  to  hold  up  presidents  of  the  repub 
lic,  governors  of  States,  or  generals  of  the  army,  as  accessaries 
and  confederates  of  treasonable,  corrupt  army  contractors  ?  or 
disloyal  men  who  in  time  of  war  barter  with  the  enemy  ?  Is  the 
mere  fact  that  such  high  crimes  are  committed  by  men  in  impor 
tant  official  position  to  be  deemed  sufficient,  without  other  evi 
dence,  to  blast  the  character  of  their  superiors  in  office  ?  If  this 
be  so,  no  administration  can  escape  condemnation,  for  none  has 
been  without  them  which  had  a  revolution  on  its  hands.  History 
affords  few  examples,  if  any,  of  chief  magistrates  charged  with 
great  responsibilities  righting  both  for  and  against  the  common 
enemy.  Dudley  was  never  bad  enough  or  weak  enough  for  that 
sort  of  an  enterprise.  This  slanderous  and  disreputable  stricture 
upon  the  otherwise  good  name  of  Dudley  seems  to  have  been 
the  offspring  of  envy,  jealousy,  surmise,  distrust,  and  malice,  of 
which  the  sad  story  of  witchcraft  has  shown  the  authors  to  have 
been  fully  capable. 

One  fact  relieves  these  disreputable  opinions.  It  is  that  his 
son  Paul  was  coupled  with  him  in  wrong-doing  by  the  Mathers ; 
but  fortunately  we  have  his  distinguished  record  apart  from  his 

1  Hist.  Harvard  Univ.,  i.  202,  203. 

2  The  English  in  America,  ii.  472. 


460  APPENDIX  B 

father's,  and  can  judge  for  ourselves.  Paul  Dudley  was  attorney, 
general  of  Massachusetts  during  nearly  the  entire  governorship 
of  his  father,  and  three  years  more,  until  1718,  when  he  was 
raised  to  be  a  judge  in  the  highest  court,  and  held  that  position 
for  twenty-seven  years ;  when,  in  1745,  he  was  created  chief  jus 
tice  of  the  same  court,  and  continued  till  his  death  in  1751,  cover 
ing  in  all  a  period  of  forty-nine  years,  in  which,  excepting  the 
Mather  insinuations,  he  seems  to  have  been  respected  and  highly 
honored;  and  yet  with  all  this  record  he  could  not  escape 
calumny  from  this  source.  Quincy  says,  "But  the  talent  and 
independence  he  exhibited  in  the  offices  he  subsequently  held 
gradually  restored  him  to  the  favor  of  the  people.  In  1718  he 
was  raised  to  the  bench,  and  was  finally  made  chief  justice  of  the 
province,  in  which  office  his  conduct  obtained  universal  appro 
bation."  *  Men  grow  better,  and  sometimes  worse,  we  admit,  but 
this  record  shows  the  mental  and  moral  constitution  of  the  man. 
"  Do  men  gather  grapes  of  thorns,  or  figs  of  thistles  ? "  He  was, 
with  Franklin  and  others,  "a  leading  student  of  nature  in  this 
country." 2 

Perhaps  I  cannot  do  better  than  to  quote  the  words  of  some  of 
Joseph  Dudley's  contemporaries,  to  show  how  he  was  esteemed, 
since  we  have  seen  how  he  has  been  ungraciously  treated  by  a 
portion  of  them. 

Mr.  Dean  Dudley  has  furnished  us  with  an  extract  from  the 
writings  of  Rev.  Benjamin  Colman,  of  the  class  of  1692  at  Har 
vard,  first  minister  of  Brattle  Street  Church,  Boston,  Mass.  Mr. 
Colman  was  visiting  England,  evidently  some  time  after  1701, 
since  he  calls  him  Colonel  Dudley,  a  title  he  acquired  during  his 
government  in  the  Isle  of  Wight.  He  says,  "  I  am,  myself,  a  wit 
ness  of  the  honor  and  esteem  he  was  in  there,  and  his  country  not 
a  little  for  his  sake,  among  wise  and  learned  men,  both  at  Lon 
don  and  at  Cambridge.  He  was  then  in  the  prime  of  his  life, 
and  shone  at  the  very  court  and  among  the  philosophers  of  the 
age." 

He  continues,  "  When  I  was  at  Cambridge,  England,  as  soon 
and  as  often  as  I  had  occasion  to  say  that  I  came  from  New  Eng 
land,  I  was  eagerly  asked  if  I  knew  Colonel  Dudley,  who  had 
lately  appeared  there  with  my  Lord  Cutts,  and  one  and  another 

1  Hist.  Harvard  Univ.,  ii.  139. 

3  Tyler's  Hist.  Am.  Lit.,  ii.  317.    See  Paul  Dudley,  Eliot's  Diet. 


APPENDIX  B  461 

spoke  with  such  admiration  of  the  man,  as  the  modesty  and 
humility  of  my  country  will  not  allow  me  to  repeat."  The  vera 
city  and  judgment  of  Mr.  Colman  cannot  be  questioned,  as  he  was 
the  author  of  three  volumes  of  evangelical  sermons. 

It  was  certainly  a  confirmation  of  the  existence  of  these  distin 
guished  friendships1  for  Dudley  in  England  that  he  received  such 
special  favors  from  Major-General  Lord  John  Cutts,  one  of  the 
illustrious  commanders  at  the  battles  of  Boyne,  Namur,  and  Blen 
heim,  and  governor  of  the  Isle  of  Wight  when  Dudley  was  lieu 
tenant-governor,  during  eight  years,  through  his  influence  no 
doubt.  Sir  Richard  Steele,  subsequently  distinguished  as  the 
founder  of  the  British  Essayist,  and  the  "  father  of  periodical 
writing  "  in  the  Augustan  age  of  English  literature,  was  in  1695 
taken  into  the  household  of  Lord  Cutts  and  made  his  secretary ; 
thus  for  about  five  years  he  and  Dudley  were  companions,  and 
are  said  to  have  been  friends,  with  congenial  interests  and  sym 
pathies.  Steele  was  twenty-five  years  younger,  we  are  informed,2 
and  was  attentive  to  the  counsel  and  opinions  of  Dudley. 

Dudley's  last  days  in  office,  after  the  storm  of  revolution  had 
subsided  and  people  had  accepted  the  national  government 
in  place  of  the  local,  were  his  best  and  most  popular  in  the 
colony.  The  Boston  News-Letter,  for  many  years  the  one  news 
paper  in  Boston,  gave  in  No.  834  of  its  issue  the  following  com 
prehensive  and  glowing  estimate  of  him,  which  could  not  have 
been  satisfactory  to  all  readers  of  the  paper  •  but  since  the  smoke 
of  that  inevitable  conflict  has  blown  away,  it  may  not  be  found 

1  J.  A.Doyle's  Eng.  in  Amer.,  ii.  407,  408. 

2  Letter  of  Richard  Steele  to  Joseph  Dudley  :  — 

June,  25,  1700. 

SIR,  —  I  have  your  kind  raillery  of  the  4th,  and  shall  not  pretend  to  answer 
it ;  you  excuse  my  not  doing  that  in  your  observation  of  the  loss  of  my  brains, 
but  the  circumstances  of  that  matter  are  such,  that  you  yourself,  as  wise  as 
you  really  are,  would  have  done  the  same  thing.  You  cannot  imagine  the 
sincere  pleasure  Mrs.  Lawrence's  Pity  gave  me.  I  always  had  an  honor  for 
her,  and  knew  she  had,  at  the  bottom,  a  generous  disposition. 

I  am  just  come  of  Hampton  Court  Guard.  You  already  know  Lord  Jersey 
is  Chamberlain,  Lord  Rumney,  Groom  of  the  Stole  [first  lord  of  the  bed 
chamber  in  the  royal  household].  'T  is  expected  Lord  Pembroke  will  be 
Lieutenant  of  Ireland,  Lord  Lexington,  or  Mr.  Hill,  Secretary  in  Lord 
Jersey's  room. 

You  shall  always  find  me,  Dear  Sir,  your  most  obedient,  ready  humble 
servant,  R.  STEELE. 

(Proc.  Mass.  Hist.  Soc.,  2d  series,  Jan.  1887,  201.) 


462  APPENDIX   B 

so  extravagant  in  praise.  "  He  was  a  man  of  rare  endowments 
and  shining  accomplishments ;  a  singular  honor  to  his  country, 
and  in  many  respects  the  glory  of  it.  He  was  early  its  darling, 
always  its  ornament,  and  in  his  age  its  crown.  The  scholar,1 
the  divine,  the  philosopher,  and  the  lawyer  all  met  in  him.  He 
was  visibly  formed  for  government ;  and  under  his  administration, 
by  the  blessing  of  Almighty  God,  we  enjoyed  great  quietness, 
and  were  safely  steered  through  a  long  and  difficult  French  and 
Indian  war."2 

This  was  contemporary  Massachusetts  testimony  of  the  press, 
which,  if  servile,  was  nevertheless  solicitous  for  its  reputation 
with  its  readers,  and  would  not  venture  far  away  from  existing 
public  sentiment. 

The  family  of  Governor  Thomas  Dudley  was  at  the  end  of 
three  quarters  of  a  century  in  complete,  undisputed  ascendency 
in  Massachusetts.  No  other  family  had  such  a  hold  on  the  gov 
ernment  and  the  high  places  of  power  before  or  since.  But,  as 
Governor  Washburn  says,  "  the  name  has  yielded  to  the  republi 
can  tendencies  of  our  institutions,  and  is  not  now  to  be  found 
among  those  in  place  and  power  in  our  commonwealth."  8  The 
father  was  governor ;  his  son  Paul  attorney-general ;  and  his  son 
William  in  public  service  in  an  embassy  to  Canada,  and  a  military 
expedition  against  Port  Royal.  These  sons  were  both  very  influ 
ential  for  many  years  in  Massachusetts.4 

1  Tyler's  Hist.  Am.  Lit,  ii.  312,  313,  317. 

2  Governor  Emory  Washburn  said  of  him  in  1840,  "  No  native  of  New 
England  had  passed  through  so  many  scenes  and  enjoyed  so  many  public 
honors  and  offices  as  Governor  Dudley. 

"  Had  he  remained  in  private  life,  he  would  have  been  justly  eminent  as  a 
philosopher  and  scholar,  a  divine  or  lawyer.  He  was,  in  fact,  to  no  small  extent 
all  these,  even  amidst  the  cares  and  perplexities  of  public  life. 

"  In  private  life  he  was  amiable,  affable  and  polite,  elegant  in  his  manners, 
and  courteous  and  gentlemanly  in  his  intercourse  with  all  classes.  His  person 
was  large,  and  his  countenance  open,  dignified,  and  intelligent.  He  had  been 
familiar  with  the  court,  and  his  address  and  conversation  were  uncommonly 
graceful  and  pleasing.  As  a  judge  he  was  distinguished  for  gravity,  dignity, 
and  on  ordinary  occasions  mildness  of  manner.  As  a  chief  magistrate,  none 
could  doubt  his  capacity  to  govern,  and  the  prudence  with  which  he  managed 
the  affairs  of  the  province  disarmed  even  the  opposition  of  his  enemies.  .  .  . 
He  was  justly  regarded  as  an  honor  to  Massachusetts."  (Jud.  Hist.  Mass., 
119,  120;  History  of  Dudley  Family,  i.  163-196,  313-336.) 

3  Jud.  Hist.  Mass.,  120. 

4  Washburn's  Jud.  Hist.  Mass.,  283,  326;  Hutch.,  Hist.  Mass.,  i.  154,  note. 


APPENDIX  B  463 

Joseph  Dudley,  forgetful  of  the  sturdy  independence  of  his 
father,  was  thought  by  some  persons  to  be  too  loyal  to  the  crown, 
too  fond  of  the  English  church,  too  selfish  and  ambitious  for 
public  trust.1 

Dudley,  from  1683  to  1715,  recognizing  his  influence  at  home 
and  his  prestige  in  England,  and  being  an  accomplished  gentle 
man  and  politician,  deemed  it,  as  others  before  and  since  have 
done,  to  be  his  privilege  and  duty  to  take  and  hold  office  for  the 
good  of  Massachusetts,  not  forgetting  the  honor  which  ought  to 
attend  faithful  service. 

A  remarkable  change  both  in  the  politics  of  England  and  of 
Massachusetts  had  given  a  new  turn  to  affairs.  That  ignoring  of 
the  English  government,  which  had  distinguished  the  administra 
tions  of  Winthrop  and  of  his  father,  was  no  longer  possible.  The 
province  was  now  of  sufficient  importance  to  attract  the  attention 
of  the  covetous  and  powerful  Louis  XIV.  and  other  European 
sovereigns,  while  hostile  Indians  on  every  side  created  anxiety. 

There  was  only  one  course  open  to  Dudley  as  matters  then 
stood  :  that  was  to  cling  loyally  to  the  service  and  protection  of 
the  mother  country.  An  attempt  at  revolt  then  would  have  been 
fatal  •  the  era  for  the  Revolution  had  not  arrived.  Neither  would 
the  crown  tolerate  half-hearted  service ;  he  must  do  his  duty,  or  a 
foreigner  would  take  his  place.  It  would  have  been  worse  than 
criminal  then  to  have  awakened  the  wrath  of  England,  with  no 
sympathetic  Puritan  party  to  assist,  with  the  hierarchy  and  the 
Stuarts  in  power,  without  army  or  navy,  and  with  growing  bitter- 

1  It  has  been  said  in  the  same  spirit,  in  recent  years,  that  the  magnificent 
patriotism  of  Daniel  Webster,  so  conspicuous  at  Plymouth  Rock,  at  Bunker 
Hill,  and  in  the  Senate,  was  quenched  in  1850  by  his  unworthy  ambition  to  be 
president.  "  So  fallen  !  so  lost !  the  light  withdrawn  which  once  he  wore." 
The  political  situation  devoted  him  to  political  destruction,  to  which  he  ad 
vanced  with  the  same  love  of  country,  cherishing  with  the  deepest  and  most 
sincere  affections  of  his  heart  the  Constitution  and  the  Union,  imploring  his 
fellow-citizens  of  every  section  of  the  nation  to  pause,  consider,  lay  aside  pas 
sion,  and  listen  to  reason.  It  was  one  of  the  remarkable  incidents  of  the  Civil 
War  that  the  generation  of  men  from  the  North,  who  fought  it,  had  been 
trained  to  love  the  Union,  and  educated  to  comprehend  its  marvelous  signif 
icance,  by  declaiming  at  school  the  masterly  utterances  of  Webster.  His  wis 
dom,  his  thoughts,  had  penetrated  to  the  heart  of  the  nation,  and  filled  its  life 
currents  with  one  great  overmastering  conviction,  "  Liberty  and  Union,  now 
and  forever,  one  and  inseparable."  He  and  John  Brown  marched  at  the  head 
of  the  advance  column  of  the  army  of  the  Union. 


464  APPENDIX   C 

ness  constantly  extending  between  Old  and  New  England,  which 
was  at  last  to  result  in  independence.  His  ardent  love  for  Massa 
chusetts  was  fully  attested.  He  was  an  able  man,  long  in  public 
life,  and  created  by  his  positive  career  strong  friends  and  bitter 
enemies.  His  public  record,  as  we  have  noticed,  received  both 
severe  criticism  and  the  highest  commendation  from  his  contem 
poraries  ;  and  the  time  may  yet  come  —  and  our  faith  in  justice 
at  last  prompts  us  to  say  that  it  will  come  —  when  the  exalted  pa 
triotism  of  Dudley  and  Webster  will  receive  universal  encomium. 

It  is  difficult  to  do  justice  to  the  magnificent  men  who,  as  the 
final  severance  from  England  came,  were  found  on  the  loyal  side 
in  politics.  Judges  of  the  greatest  influence,  scholars  of  the  first 
rank,  men  with  the  purest  character,  with  consciences  void  of 
offense,  with  unflinching  fidelity  clung  to  fatherland,  and  with 
great  sufferings  and  sacrifices  held  their  true  allegiance  to  the 
British  throne  to  the  end.  Examine  the  spotless  records  of  judges 
like  Peter  Oliver,  and  a  multitude  of  others,  whose  only  reproach 
was  that  they  were  on  the  wrong  side  of  politics,  for  which  they 
were  exiled  or  ostracized,  and  it  will  assist  us  to  realize  the  polit 
ical  environment  of  Dudley  earlier,  and  prepare  us  to  meet  the 
discreditable  charges  of  his  bitter  rivals  and  enemies.  We  our 
selves  followed  near  enough  to  the  Revolution  to  have  an  almost 
irrepressible  hatred  of  England  in  our  childhood,  which  we  are 
much  pleased  to  have  outgrown,  but  that  hostility  embraced 
every  person,  without  reason  or  mercy,  who  was  not  on  the  polit 
ical  side  with  the  fathers. 

The  time  will  come,  if  it  has  not,  when  both  sides  of  the  situa 
tion  may  be  regarded  without  passion  or  prejudice,  and  the 
obloquy  which  has  been  thrown  upon  the  memory  of  some  of  the 
ablest  and  best  Americans  of  the  past  will  disappear  from  the  his 
tory  of  our  country. 


APPENDIX   C 

GOVERNOR   SIMON    BRADSTREET   AND    HIS    WIFE,    ANNE 

Anne  Bradstreet,  the  oldest  daughter  of  Governor  Thomas 
Dudley,  was  born  in  Northamptonshire,  England,  about  1612, 
while  her  father  was  with  Judge  Nicolls,  and  died  at  Andover, 
Mass.,  September  16,  1672.  She  married  Governor  Simon  Brad- 


APPENDIX   D  465 

street,  who  was  nine  years  older  than  herself,  in  1628,  and  went 
with  him  and  with  her  father  and  his  family  on  the  Arbella,  to 
New  England,  in  1630. 

Anne  was  only  sixteen  years  old  when  she  married  Mr.  Brad- 
street.  They  must  have  had  an  excellent  opportunity  to  become 
acquainted  with  each  other  during  the  eight  years  that  Bradstreet 
was  "  under  the  direction  of  "  her  father  at  Sempringham,  in  the 
family  of  the  Earl  of  Lincoln,  "  the  best  family  of  any  nobleman 
then  in  England,"  from  his  sixteenth  to  his  twenty-fourth  year. 
It  adds  another  interest  to  the  Church  of  St.  Andrew's  that  these 
young  people  went  in  and  out  of  it  as  we  see  it  now,  and  may 
have  been  married  within  its  ancient  walls.1 

Mrs.  Bradstreet  was  the  mother  of  eight  children.  She  was 
the  author  of  the  first  volume  of  poems  written  in  America,  pub 
lished  in  1640.  Both  her  poetry  and  her  prose  have  received 
merited  praise.  Tyler  says,  "  Somehow,  during  her  busy  lifetime, 
she  contrived  to  put  upon  record  compositions  numerous  enough 
to  fill  a  royal  octavo  volume  of  four  hundred  pages,  —  compo 
sitions  which  entice  and  reward  our  reading  of  them  two  hundred 
years  after  she  lived."2  Bradstreet  was  governor  from  1679  to 
1686,  and  from  1689  to  1692.  He  was  for  many  years  a  com 
missioner  of  the  United  Colonies.  He  was  the  Nestor  of  New 
England ;  born  in  1603,  died  1697.  He  was  the  youngest  of  the 
original  assistants,  and  survived  them  all,  continuing  in  that  office 
from  1630  for  forty-nine  years.  He  was  educated  at  Emanuel 
College,  Cambridge,  Eng.  He  married  for  his  second  wife  the 
sister  of  Sir  George  Downing.8 


APPENDIX  D 

MAJOR-GENERAL   DENNISON    AND    HIS    WIFE,    PATIENCE 

Dudley's  second  daughter,  Patience,  was  born  in  England,  and 
died  at  Ipswich,  Mass.,  February  8,  1689-90.  She  married  at 
Cambridge,  Mass.,  Major-General  Daniel  Dennison,  a  very  distin- 

1  Mather's  Mag.,  i.  bk.  ii.  126. 

2  Hist,  of  Amer.  Lit.,  i.  280  :  Allibone's  Diet.,  i.  236 ;  John  Harvard  Ellis's 
Works  of  Anne  Bradstreet  in  Prose  and  Verse,  1867  ;  Duyckinck's  Cyclo.  of 
Amer.  Lit.,  i.  52. 

3  Young's  Chron,,  125. 


466  APPENDIX   D 

guished  person  in  the  colony.  He  was  born  in  England  in  1613, 
and  died  at  Ipswich,  Mass.,  September  20,  1682.  He  came  to 
America  the  next  year  after  the  emigration  of  his  wife,  viz.,  in 
1631.  They  removed  with  Thomas  Dudley  to  Ipswich  in  1635. 
He  was  a  commissioner,  as  we  have  seen,  to  treat  with  D'Aulnay 
in  1646  at  Penobscot,  and  was  after  that  major-general  of  the 
colonial  forces  for  ten  years.  He  was  speaker  of  the  House  in 
1649  and  in  1651-52.  He  was  secretary  of  the  colony  in  1653, 
and  justice  of  the  Quarterly  Court  in  1658.  He  was  com 
missioner  of  the  United  Colonies  in  1654-62  inclusive,  and  sub 
stitute  commissioner  in  1671,  1673,  1674-75,  and  1679.  He  and 
Bradstreet  were  the  two  commissioners  from  Massachusetts  from 
1654  to  1662,  with  the  single  exception  that  John  Endicott  took 
his  place  in  1658.  Either  Dennison  or  Bradstreet,  or  both  of  them, 
were  commissioners  or  substitutes  from  the  decease  of  Dudley 
until  1680,  with  the  exception  of  1667-68,  1676,  and  1678,  in 
which  last  year  Joseph  Dudley  took  the  position,  and  continued 
in  it,  excepting  1682  and  1683,  until  1685,  or  nearly  to  the  end  of 
the  first  charter.  Dennison  was  an  assistant  from  1653,  the  date 
of  Dudley's  death,  until  1667.  If  we  take  into  account  the  fact 
that  Bradstreet  was  governor  from  1679  to  1686,  and  assistant 
from  1668  until  1678,  and  that  he  was  not  only  a  son-in-law  of 
Dudley,  but  began  his  active  life  with  him  at  Sempringham  and 
subordinate  to  him  ;  and  further,  that  Joseph  Dudley  followed 
them  into  power  and  continued  in  it  until  old  age,  in  1715,  with 
little  interruption,  we  shall  be  sure  that  the  Dudley  family  was 
more  intimately  associated  with  the  first  century  of  Massachusetts 
history  than  the  family  of  any  other  one  of  the  distinguished 
immigrants  of  1630,  or  of  their  predecessors,  to  this  country. 
Such  summary  ought  also  to  include  Paul  and  William  Dudley. 

Dennison  has  the  distinction  also  of  having  made  the  revision 
of  the  Code  of  1660  and  the  index  to  it.1  Johnson  says  of  Denni 
son,  "Their  first  Major,  who  now  commandeth  this  Regiment,  is 
the  proper  and  valiant  Major  Daniel  Dennison,  a  good  soldier, 
and  of  a  quick  capacity,  not  inferior  to  any  other  of  these  chief 
officers ;  his  own  company  are  well  instructed  in  feats  of  warlike 
activity."  2 

1  See  Col.  Laws  of  Mass,  supervised  by  Whitmore,  119-216,  also  Introduc. 
to  same,  99  ;  Poole's  edition  of  Johnson's  Wonder- Working  Providence,  cvii. 

2  Whitmore's  Col.  Laws,  192. 


APPENDIX   E  467 

He  was  the  author  of  a  curious  tract,  with  the  title  "  Irenicon, 
or  Salve  for  New  England's  Sore."  l 


APPENDIX   E 

REV.    SAMUEL   DUDLEY 

Rev.  Samuel  Dudley,  son  of  Thomas,  was  born  in  Northamp 
tonshire,  England,  about  1608,  while  his  father  was  clerk  of 
Judge  Nicolls,  and  died  February  10,  1683,  at  Exeter,  N.  H. 
He  came  with  his  father  to  America  in  the  Arbella  in  1630.  He 
was  married,  in  1632,  to  Mary,  the  daughter  of  Governor  Win- 
throp.  He  erected  a  house  which  stood  at  or  near  the  corner 
of  Dunster  and  Mount  Auburn  streets,  in  Cambridge.  He  re 
moved  to  Ipswich  in  1635,  *n  company  with  his  father.  He 
founded  with  others  the  town  of  Salisbury  in  1638.  He  repre 
sented  Salisbury  in  the  General  Court  in  1642,  1643,  I^44,  and 
1645.  -^e  was  associate  judge  for  the  year  1649  w^n  Richard 
Bellingham,  and  Samuel  Simonds  for  the  county  of  Norfolk.2 
His  wife,  Mary,  after  eleven  years  of  companionship  with  him, 
died  April  12,  1643,  at  Salisbury.8  He  married  Mary  Byley,  of 
Salisbury,  in  1643.  Mr.  Dudley  was  the  pastor  at  Exeter,  N.  H., 
in  1650.  He  asked  the  town  in  1655  to  reduce  his  salary,  it 
being  a  year  of  hardship  and  misfortune.  In  1659  he  preached 
at  Portsmouth,  N.  H.,  upon  invitation,  and  received  a  call  to 
settle  there,  with  an  offer  of  eighty  pounds  a  year,  which  he 
declined,  and  continued  at  Exeter,  at  a  smaller  salary.  He 
took  an  interest  in  mills  and  farming.  Dean  Dudley  says  that 
"  he  seems  to  have  been  the  first  in  this  country  to  attempt  to 
improve  the  breed  of  horses,  cattle,  and  sheep."  He  met  with 
the  loss  of  his  second  wife  in  1651,  and  later  married  his  last 
wife,  Elizabeth.  His  children,  so  far  as  known,  numbered  eigh 
teen.  He  seems  to  have  retained  public  confidence  to  the  age  of 
seventy-five  years,  and  died  with  the  affectionate  regard  of  all 
who  knew  him,  and  his  memory  has  been  kindly  cherished  by 
every  writer  since  his  day. 

1  Winthrop,  ii.  *2$g. 

2  Mass.  Col.  Rec.,  ii.  266  ;  see,  also,  242. 
8  Life  and  Letters  of  Winthrop,  ii.  321. 


468  APPENDIX   F 

APPENDIX   F 

REV.   JOHN   WOODBRIDGE  AND   HIS   WIFE,    MERCY. 

Rev.  John  Woodbridge,  son-in-law  of  Dudley,  was  born  in  Stan- 
ton,  Wiltshire,  England,  in  1614,  and  died  in  Newbury,  Mass., 
March  17,  1695.  He  was  sent  to  Oxford,  where  he  remained 
"  until  the  oath  of  conformity  came  to  be  required  of  him,  which, 
neither  his  father  nor  his  conscience  approving,  he  removed 
thence  into  a  course  of  more  private  studies."  He  came  to  Amer 
ica  in  the  ship  Mary  and  John,  in  1634,  and  settled  in  Newbury, 
Mass.,  of  which  he  was  town  clerk  in  1634-38,  and  surveyor  of 
arms  in  1637.  In  1639  ne  married  Mercy,  the  youngest  daughter 
of  Thomas  Dudley  by  his  first  wife.  She  had  crossed  the  ocean 
with  her  father  in  the  Arbella,  in  1630.  There  were  twelve  chil 
dren  by  this  marriage.  He  taught  in  Boston  in  1643,  following 
the  advice  of  his  father,  Dudley,  given  in  a  letter  dated  Novem 
ber  28,  1642. l  Still  further  following  the  advice  of  said  letter,  he 
was  chosen  the  first  minister  of  Andover,  Mass.,  and  ordained 
September  4,  1647,  according  to  Mather.  He,  with  others,  pur 
chased  the  land  from  the  Indians  on  which  that  town  was  built. 
He  returned  to  England  in  1647,  an<^  was  chaplain  to  the  parlia 
mentary  commissioners  who  made  a  treaty  with  the  king  at  the 
Isle  of  Wight.  He  was  afterwards  a  minister  at  various  places, 
until  he  was  rejected  after  the  Restoration.  He  returned  to  New 
England  in  1663,  and  served  as  an  assistant  to  Rev.  Thomas 
Parker  until  November  30,  1670.  He  was  an  assistant  in  1683-84. 
There  is  an  island  named  for  him  near  the  mouth  of  the  Merri- 
mac  River.  "  He  was  observably  overwhelmed  by  the  death  of 
his  most  religious,  prudent,  and  faithful  consort,  when  she  was, 
July  i,  1691,  fifty  years  after  his  first  marriage  unto  her,  torn 
away  from  the  desire  of  his  eyes.  His  value  of  the  whole  world 
was,  after  a  manner,  extinguished  in  this  loss,  of  what  was  to 
him  the  best  part  of  it ;  and  he  sometimes  declared  himself  desir 
ous  to  be  gone,  whenever  the  Lord  of  Heaven  should  be  pleased 
to  call  him  thither."  2  Savage  says  he  had  seen  a  letter  from 
Dudley  dated  July  8,  1648,  to  him,  "  Preacher  of  the  word  of  God 
at  Andover  in  Wiltshire,"  advising  of  the  means  he  would  follow 

1  See  p.  287  of  this  volume. 

2  Mather's  Mag.,  i.  542-544. 


APPENDIX  H  469 

to  send  his  wife  and  children.1    We  have  been  unable  to  find 
this  letter. 

APPENDIX   G 

CAPTAIN   JONATHAN    WADE   AND    HIS   WIFE,    DEBORAH 

Thomas  Dudley's  youngest  daughter,  Deborah,  was  born  Feb 


ruary  27,  1645,  and  died  November  i,  1683.  She  married  Jona 
than  Wade,  whose  native  place  was  Ipswich,  but  he  removed  to 
Medford,  Mass.  He  was  admitted  a  freeman  in  1669.  He  was 
captain  of  the  "  Three  County  Troop  of  Horse."  He  died 
November,  24,  1689.  2 

APPENDIX   H 

SARAH    PACEY 

Sarah,  the  third  daughter  of  Thomas  Dudley,  was  baptized 
July  23,  1620,  at  Sempringham,  England,  as  we  are  informed  by 
Dean  Dudley,  and  died  in  Roxbury,  Mass.,  in  1659,  Savage  says, 
"very  poor."8  She  was  married,  September  i,  1638,  to  Major 
Benjamin  Keayne,  the  son  of  Captain  Robert  Keayne,  the  first 
commander  of  the  Ancient  and  Honorable  Artillery  Company. 
They  had  one  child,  Ann  or  Hannah,  who  seems  to  have  been 
respected  during  her  life,  although  her  grandfather  Keayne,  in 
the  most  remarkable  will  extant  for  length  and  irrelevant  matter, 
manifested  such  distrust  of  her  that  it  might  well,  when  read  by 
strangers,  cast  a  shade  upon  her  character.  So  that  we  are 
inclined  to  think  that  any  reflection  upon  her  in  literature  is  an 
exhalation  from  that  will. 

We  should  willingly  avoid  entering  upon  the  sad  story  of  Mrs. 
Benjamin  Keayne,  were  it  not  for  the  fact  that  her  brothers  and 
sisters  have  been  considered,  and  it  seems  due  to  her  memory  to 
trace  her  career,  of  which  very  little  is  known.  Her  husband 
deserted  her  and  went  to  England  in  disgust,  Savage  says,  in 
1645.  It  seems  that  Keayne  had  an  estate  in  Lynn,  Mass.,  and 
that  he  made  an  assignment  of  his  property  to  his  wife  and  his 
father  after  his  departure  to  England,  or  immediately  previous, 
and  the  Court  thought  that  the  assignment  might  be  detrimental 

1  Winthrop,  ii.  *2$3.     See,  also,  Mather's  Mag.,  i.  542,  and  Second  Reunion 
of  the  Dudley  Association,  October  17,  1893,  ?•  38- 

2  N.  E.  Genealog.  Reg.,  iv.  378. 

3  Winthrop,  ii.  4,  note. 


470  APPENDIX   H 

to  the  claim  of  certain  orphans  upon  the  estate  of  Keayne,  and 
it  ordered  that  the  Lynn  "farm  shall  not  be  alienated."  It  seems 
quite  possible  that  Keayne  went  to  England  to  avoid  his  American 
creditors.  He  left  his  wife  behind  him,  who  was  loyal  enough  to 
him  to  gather  all  she  could,  with  the  help,  no  doubt,  of  her  co- 
assignee,  and  take  it  with  her  to  England.  She  was  unfortunate, 
and  lost  the  property  by  the  perils  of  the  sea,  or,  as  it  was  said, 
"  all  her  goods  miscarried  and  she  escaped  only  with  her  life."  l 

It  is  quite  possible  that  if  she  had  succeeded  in  taking  money 
to  England  she  would  have  been  more  welcome  to  her  husband. 
But  when  she  came  with  only  her  life  and  no  visible  means  of 
support,  he  at  once  repudiated  her.  If  he  was  in  fact  an  honest 
bankrupt  he  had  very  little  money,  because  we  may  conclude  that 
she  was  in  London  in  1646,  within  a  year  of  his  going,  and  while 
the  assignment  of  his  property  in  Massachusetts  was  in  force. 
Keayne  wrote  three  disgusting  letters  about  his  wife  in  March, 
1646,  from  London,  as  follows:  March  12,  to  the  Rev.  John 
Cotton  ;  March  15,  to  the  Rev.  Mr.  Wilson  ;  March  18,  to  Thomas 
Dudley,  all  of  Massachusetts.  These  letters  are  recorded  in 
Boston,  Mass.,  with  Suffolk  Deeds,  i.  83,  84. 

He  charges  her  with  unfaithfulness  to  him,  but  admits  that  he 
has  no  legal  evidence.  Dudley  drew  from  him  in  a  letter  exactly 
what  he  wanted,  viz. :  "  I  do  plainly  declare  my  resolution,  never 
again  to  live  with  her  as  a  husband." 

This  letter  to  Mr.  Dudley  seems  to  have  been  recorded  Sep 
tember  13,  1647.  Savage  says  that  she  was  disciplined  Novem 
ber,  1646,  for  irregular  prophesying.  If  it  was  in  America,  which 
is  probable,  "the  Puritans  maintained  frequent  religious  exer 
cises,  in  which  texts  of  Scripture  were  interpreted  or  discussed, 
one  speaking  to  the  subject  after  another,  in  an  orderly  method."  2 
This  was  prophesying.  What  her  irregular  conduct  was  does  not 
appear,  or  the  extent  of  the  discipline,  or  the  tribunal  which 
enforced  the  discipline.  Savage  says  further  that  she  was  excom 
municated  in  October,  1647.  Again  we  have  no  particulars  of 
the  charge,  complaint,  church,  or  tribunal.  And  we  do  not  know 
whether  it  is  worthy  of  consideration  or  not. 

All  this  is  from  an  unfriendly  source. 

1  Letter  of  Gurdon  to  John  Winthrop,  June  6,  1649.     Mass.  Hist.  Coll., 
4th  series,  vi.  568. 

2  Neal  in  New  England's  Memorial,  171,  note. 


APPENDIX   H  471 

She  married  Thomas  Pacey,  of  Boston,  Mass.,  about  1649. 
This  fact  carries  with  it  a  great  amount  of  relief  in  the  case,  be 
cause  she  had  no  fortune  to  tempt  him,  and  he  must  have  had 
confidence  in  her ;  because  she  could  not  have  married  unless 
she  had  been  divorced,  and  also  had  leave  to  marry  by  the  Court.1 
The  desertion  was  proven  by  the  letter  to  Mr.  Dudley,  quoted 
above.  If  the  Court  had  believed  the  charges  of  her  husband,  it 
would  never  have  granted  the  divorce.  The  crime  would  have 
been  punishable  with  death.2  The  fact  that  the  letters  are  re 
corded  would  seem  to  indicate  that  Dudley  regarded  Benjamin 
Keayne  as  an  unprincipled  man  who  ought  to  be  shown  up  to  the 
world  as  nothing  but  his  own  composition  could  do  it. 

Mr.  Savage  has  called  this  last  a  marriage  of  convenience.  He 
seems  to  regard  it  as  not  altogether  creditable.  Dudley  was  a 
member  of  the  Court  of  the  highest  integrity.  He  calls  her  Mrs. 
Pacey  in  his  will,  and  at  other  times.  Mr.  Robert  Keayne,  who 
was  very  hostile  to  her,  calls  her  Mrs.  Pacey  in  his  will.  She  is 
mentioned  frequently  as  Mrs.  Pacey  by  many  persons  at  different 
times.  It  was  then  a  bonafide  marriage,  whether  convenient  or 
otherwise.  We  can  discover  no  ground  for  flinging  disagreeable 
insinuations  at  her.  Savage  says  at  last  that  she  "  was  sadly  de 
graded."  There  seems  to  be  no  other  foundation  for  this  state 
ment  than  her  poverty.  Her  father  left  to  her  the  income  of  about 
five  hundred  dollars,  in  1653.  He  had  many  children  to  assist, 
and  may  have  given  her  portion  to  her  earlier.  He  assisted  her 
to  a  home  in  Roxbury  in  1647.  Tne  town  °f  Boston  was  careful 
that  she  be  not  received  as  an  inhabitant  without  security  that  she 
would  not  become  a  charge,  which  was  furnished.  But  they  fol 
lowed  hundreds  of  excellent  people,  as  the  record  shows,  with  the 
same  solicitude.  It  is  no  sin  to  be  poor.  The  noblest  and  best 
who  have  passed  through  this  world  have  experienced  poverty ; 
even  "  He  whose  morning  appetite  would  have  gladly  fed  on  green 
figs  between  Bethany  and  Jerusalem."  Martin  Luther  devoutly 
prayed,  "  Lord  God,  I  thank  thee  that  thou  hast  been  pleased  to 
make  me  a  poor  and  indigent  man  upon  earth.  I  have  neither 
house  nor  lands  nor  money  to  leave  behind  me." 

"  The  honest  man,  though  e'er  sae  poor, 
Is  king  o'  men  for  a'  that !  " 

1  See  case  of  Mrs.  Pester,  Mass.  Col.  Rec.,  iii.  277. 

2  Body  of  Liberties,  1641.     Capital  Laws,  p.  94,  ^[  9. 


472  APPENDIX   I 

APPENDIX    I 

PAUL   DUDLEY 

Paul  Dudley,  the  third  son  of  Governor  Thomas  Dudley,  was 
born  September  8,  1650,  and  died  December  i,  1681.  He  was 
about  three  years  old  when  his  father  died.  He  married  Mary, 
the  daughter  of  Governor  John  Leverett,  and  thus  connected 
two  very  influential  families. 

Mr.  Dean  Dudley  says  that  "  Mr.  Paul  Dudley  was  a  merchant 
and  collector  of  customs  at  the  port  of  Boston  and  Charlestown. 
His  dwelling-house  stood  on  the  town  street  leading  to  the  dock. 
The  dock  was  where  Faneuil  Hall  stands ;  Dock  Square  was 
so  named  from  the  dock."  1  He  was  for  a  brief  period  judge  of 
probate  of  Suffolk  County,  Mass. 

He  and  his  brother  Joseph  became  members  of  the  Ancient 
and  Honorable  Artillery  Company  in  1677.  He  appears  to  have 
been  contented  with  private  life,  and  to  have  left  the  precarious 
turmoil  of  politics  to  his  brother  Joseph,  who  evidently  reveled 
in  its  turbulent  storms. 

APPENDIX  J 

CHIEF   JUSTICE   PAUL   DUDLEY,    GRANDSON   OF   THOMAS   DUDLEY 

The  Chief  Justice  Paul  Dudley,  son  of  Governor  Joseph  Dud 
ley  and  grandson  of  Governor  Thomas  Dudley,  seems  to  be 
entitled  to  consideration  here  both  on  account  of  the  eminence 
he  secured  for  his  family  and  because  of  the  great  services  he 
rendered  to  Massachusetts. 

He  was  born  at  Roxbury,  Mass.,  September  3,  1675,  and 
resided  there  throughout  his  life.  He  took  his  first  degree  at 
Harvard  in  1690,  when  he  was  fourteen  years  old,  and  is  said 
to  have  been  the  youngest  student  ever  graduated  from  the 
university,  being  younger  by  one  year  than  Cotton  Mather  and 
the  late  Andrew  Preston  Peabody. 

His  father  gave  an  attractive  glimpse  of  his  genial  nature  in 
his  letter  to  the  university  offering  Paul  as  a  student  in  the  fol 
lowing  words  :  — 

1  History  of  Dudley  Family,  i.  337. 


APPENDIX  J  473 

"April  26,  1686.  I  have  humbly  to  offer  to  you  a  little,  sober, 
and  well  disposed  son,  who  though  very  young,  if  he  may  have 
the  favor  of  admittance,  I  hope  his  learning  may  be  tolerable ; 
and  for  him  I  will  promise  that  by  your  and  my  care,  his  own 
industry  and  the  blessing  of  God,  his  mother  the  University 
shall  not  be  ashamed  to  allow  him  the  place  of  a  son  at  seven 
years  end.  Appoint  a  time  when  he  may  be  examined." 

He  read  law  several  years  in  America  after  graduation,  and 
then  went  to  England  to  finish  his  studies  at  the  Temple.1 

He  returned  to  America  in  1702  with  a  commission  from  the 
Queen  as  attorney-general  of  Massachusetts,  which  office  he  held 
for  sixteen  years,  until  he  was  appointed  a  judge  of  the  Superior 
Court,  the  highest  court  in  the  province  then,  where  he  continued 
twenty-seven  years  to  administer  justice.  He  became  chief  jus 
tice  in  1745,  and  remained  in  that  office  six  years,  until  his 
decease  in  1751. 

He  was  thus  in  judicial  office  during  forty-nine  years,  nearly 
half  a  century,  including  his  entire  active  career.  He  adhered 
at  first  to  the  throne  and  prerogative  like  his  father,  but  later 
entered  more  and  more  the  popular  current  and  became  Ameri 
canized,  to  the  great  joy  of  his  fellow-citizens. 

He  was  a  representative  to  the  General  Court  several  years, 
and  speaker  in  1739,  and  had  a  seat  at  the  council  board.  Judge 
Sewall,  who  was  a  justice  of  the  same  court,  and  knew  Mr.  Jus 
tice  Dudley  well,  says  :  "  Here  [on  the  bench]  he  displayed  his 
admirable  talents,  his  quick  apprehension,  his  uncommon  strength 
of  memory  and  extensive  knowledge.  .  .  .  When  he  spoke,  it 
was  with  such  authority  and  peculiar  energy  of  expression  as 
never  failed  to  command  attention,  and  deeply  impress  the  minds 
of  all  who  heard  him ;  and  his  sentiments  of  law  and  evidence, 
in  all  cases  before  the  court,  had  generally  a  determining  weight 
with  those  who  were  charged  with  the  trial  of  them." 

Eliot,  in  his  Biographical  Dictionary,  says  that  "  he  was  a 
very  learned  theologian,  and  wrote  a  book  upon  the  '  merchan 
dise  of  souls,'  being  an  exposition  of  certain  passages  in  the 
book  of  Revelations."  This  essay  was  an  attempt  chiefly  to 
present  the  perils  that  were  impending  over  the  world  from  the 
Roman  Catholic  Church,  setting  forth  solemnly  and  zealously 

1  Hist.  Geneal.  Reg.,  x.  338,  343 ;  Diary  of  Paul  Dudley,  Ib.,  xxxv.  28- 


474  APPENDIX  J 

its  errors.1  It  was  a  work  of  much  learning,  but  of  little  use  in 
this  mild  and  liberal  age. 

The  very  next  year  after  he  was  elevated  to  the  bench,  his 
attention  was  drawn  to  Baconian,  experimental  investigation  of 
the  phenomena  of  nature.  He  contributed  to  the  Transactions 
of  the  Royal  Society  of  London,  papers  on  Niagara  Falls,  Rat 
tlesnakes,  Poison-wood,  New  England  Plants,  and  many  other 
subjects. 

He  maintained  this  correspondence  with  the  society  fifteen 
years.  Some  of  his  letters  appear  in  vols.  31,  33,  34,  and  39  of 
the  Transactions  of  the  society.  He  had  the  great  honor  con 
ferred  on  him  of  being  elected  a  Fellow  of  the  Royal  Society, 
November  2,  1721,  an  attention  shown  to  very  few  Americans  of 
his  period.  Sir  Isaac  Newton  was  at  this  time  president  of  it, 
and  it  had  recently  included  Sir  Robert  Boyle  among  its  fellows. 

Dudley  was  welcomed  into  this  companionship,  and,  what  was 
more,  his  papers  entered  into  the  proceedings  of  the  society. 
Some  persons  regard  his  subjects  and  theories  as  simple  and 
child-like,  but  it  is  a  fate  which,  in  the  progress  of  science,  will 
attend  very  much  which  has  passed  current  as  human  wisdom. 
The  answer  to  such  criticism  is  the  contemporary  approval  both 
of  him  and  his  work  by  that  august  body  which  in  its  time  had 
under  its  supervision  the  whole  range  of  science. 

This  ancient  worthy,  with  his  own  good  steed,  traversed  year 
after  year  his  judicial  circuit,  all  the  way  from  Cape  Cod  around 
to  the  wilds  of  Maine,  meditating  on  the  issues  in  court,  holding 
communion  with  the  visible  forms  of  nature,  and  collecting  facts 
with  which  to  enlighten  the  savants  in  London. 

Some  of  his  conclusions  have  passed  all  of  the  fire-ordeals  of 
modern  science,  and  added  to  the  permanent  stock  of  know 
ledge.  He  is  never  to  be  brought  into  comparison  with  stu 
dents  whose  energies  have  been  devoted  exclusively  to  natural 
science.  This  was  only  a  pastime  to  relieve  his  mind  from  the 
exacting  demands  of  his  real  vocation,  which  finally  so  absorbed 
his  attention  that  the  haunts  of  nature  were  neglected  or  ceased 
to  find  description  through  him. 

He  was  a  benefactor  of  the  town  of  Roxbury.  He  gave  to  it 
the  Upper  Stone  Bridge  over  Smelt  Brook,  the  milestones  from 
Boston  to  Roxbury,  and  scattered  over  the  town,  marked  P.  D. 
1  There  are  two  copies  of  this  book  in  the  Boston  Athenaeum. 


APPENDIX   K  475 

He  also  gave  freely  to  the  Roxbury  Latin  School.  He  was  one 
of  the  founders  of  the  town  of  Dudley,  Mass.  A  grant  of  most 
of  the  land  of  the  town  excepting  the  Indian  Reservation  had 
been  made  to  his  father,  Governor  Joseph  Dudley,  and  Judge 
Dudley  and  his  brother  Colonel  William,  with  a  certain  Colonel 
Fitch,  held  most  of  it  in  1732.  The  town  took  its  name  no  doubt 
from  the  family.  The  two  brothers  gave  at  about  this  time  five 
hundred  dollars  and  one  hundred  acres  of  land  "  as  a  parsonage 
or  settlement  for  the  first  minister." l  The  chief  justice  died 
January  25,  1751,  and  was  buried  in  the  family  tomb  with  his 
father  and  grandfather  at  Roxbury.  He  established  by  his  will 
lectures  at  Harvard  upon  four  subjects,  some  of  which  are  anti 
quated,  and  have  in  recent  years  troubled  the  university,  Natu 
ral  Religion,  Revealed  Religion,  The  Corruptions  of  the  Church 
of  Rome,  The  Validity  of  Presbyterian  Ordination.  He  was 
great  and  honorable  in  his  day,  and  made  a  profound  impres 
sion  upon  the  Commonwealth,  which  he  dearly  loved,  and  which 
held  him  during  life  in  its  high  places  of  power  and  trust. 


APPENDIX   K 

COLONEL   WILLIAM   DUDLEY,    GRANDSON    OF   THOMAS    DUDLEY 

Colonel  William  Dudley,  brother  of  Chief  Justice  Paul  Dudley, 
was  born  in  Roxbury,  October  20,  1686,  and  always  resided 
there.  He  was  graduated  at  the  head  of  his  class  at  Harvard  in 
1704.  He  was  high  sheriff  of  Suffolk  County  several  years,  a 
major  in  the  Ancient  and  Honorable  Artillery  Company  of  Bos 
ton,  and  was  during  thirty-seven  years,  from  171010  1747,  colonel 
of  the  First  Suffolk  County  Regiment.  He  was  sent  in  1705, 
when  nineteen  years  of  age,  the  year  after  his  graduation,  as  a 
commissioner  with  Captain  Vetch  to  Canada,  to  negotiate  an 
exchange  of  prisoners,  in  which  mission  he  was  successful. 

He  brought  back  the  Rev.  John  Williams,  who  had  the  year 
before  been  captured  by  the  Indians  at  Deerfield,  Mass.  Wil 
liams  was  the  first  minister  in  that  town,  and  his  wife  and  two 
of  his  children  were  slain  by  the  savages,  while  one  daughter, 

1  Town  Rec.  of  Dudley,  38,  46,  and  Hist.  Notices  of  Dudley,  by  Joshua 
Bates,  54. 


476  APPENDIX   K 

Eunice,  was  never  recovered  from  captivity.  This  was  in  Queen 
Anne's  War.  It  was  said  that  "  young  Dudley  managed  the 
business  with  no  small  address,  and  by  his  manner  of  negotiating 
kept  the  frontiers  from  being  pillaged.  This  was  doubtless  the 
policy  of  his  father  [Governor  Joseph  Dudley],  but  he  gained 
credit  by  the  execution."  l  Colonel  Dudley  was  at  last,  in  1710, 
a  distinguished  officer  in  the  final  successful  expedition  against 
Nova  Scotia;  and  from  that  day  to  this  the  English  flag  has 
floated  at  Annapolis,  which  before  had  been  called  Port  Royal. 
There  were  thirty  New  England  vessels  and  four  New  England 
regiments  in  this  conflict,  besides  the  British  troops. 

Mr.  Dudley  was,  at  a  later  period,  a  justice  of  the  Court  of 
Common  Pleas,  and  also  a  representative  for  Roxbury  in  the 
General  Court.  Eliot  says  :  "  He  always  had  great  influence  in 
a  public  assembly,  being  an  admirable  speaker,  and  possessing 
strong  intellectual  powers  as  well  as  a  brilliant  fancy.  The  op 
position  to  his  father's  administration  felt  the  weight  of  his  tal 
ents.  He  could  render  himself  very  popular,  and  was  for  several 
years  Speaker  of  the  House  of  Representatives,"  beginning  in 
1724.2 

In  1729  he  was  chosen  one  of  His  Majesty's  Council,  and 
was  very  serviceable  to  the  community.  Douglas  says  that  "  he 
was  more  acquainted  with  Provincial  affairs  than  any  other  man, 
especially  that  he  understood  landed  property."  He  died  August 
10,  1743,  at  the  age  of  fifty-six  years,  in  the  midst  of  his  use 
fulness,  with  all  his  honors  thick  upon  him.  He  was,  as  we 
have  already  seen,  together  with  his  brother,  a  founder  of  the 
town  of  Dudley,  Mass. 

1  Eliot's  Dictionary,  160. 

2  Hist.  Geneal.  Reg.,  x.  338. 


INDEX 


INDEX 


ABSCINDED  from  the  charter,  government  of 

Massachusetts  in  England,  68. 
Adventurers  without   principle   vex  the   emi 
grants  in  the  beginning,  117. 
African  slavery,  330. 
Agreement,  Cambridge,  72. 
Alcock,    Mrs.,   sister  of   Rev.    Mr.    Hooker, 

death  of,  85. 

Alden,  John,  prisoner  in  Boston,  173-175. 
Alfred  the  Great,  grave  of,  and  the  emigration, 

57  ;  will  of,  and  English  freedom,  57. 
Allen,  Bozoun,  and  Dudley,  trouble  between, 

396. 

Almanac,  early  literature  in  New  England,  256. 
Amiens,  cathedral  of,  21 ;  siege  of,  20-23. 
Anabaptists  and  Puritans,  219,  341,  407,  408. 
Anagram  by  Mr.  Eliot,  329. 
Ancestry,  not  much  regarded  in  America,  9,  10 ; 

Dudley  and  other  Puritans  careless  of,  91. 
Ancient  and  Honorable  Artillery  of  Boston, 

253- 

Andrews,  Richard,  donations  of,  326. 
Andrew's,  St.,  church,  37,  38,  465,  469. 
Andros,  Sir  Edmund,  and  Joseph  Dudley,  453. 
Antinomian  controversy,  219. 
Antinomians  and  Dudley,  226,  232. 
Antinomians  and  United  Colonies,  222. 
Antinomians,  Winthrop,  and  the  name,  228. 
Antinous,  page  of  Hadrian,  17. 
Apparel,  laws  respecting,  186. 
Appeals  to  England  refused,  344. 
Aquiday  (Rhode  Island)  and  Dudley's  answer, 

275- 

Arbella,  Lady,  37,  46,  53,  58,  60,  64. 
Arbella,  the  ship,  58,  66,  74 ;  bears  the  first 

charter  of  Massachusetts  to  America,  66. 
Aristocracy  and  poverty,  410. 
Arms,  coats  of,  Thomas  Dudley  and  Joseph 

Dudley,  5. 
Army  worms,  349. 
Arnold,  Benedict,  300. 
Arnold,   S.   G.,  strictures    on    Dudley,   278; 

opinion  of  Dudley,  284. 
Arnold,  William,  300. 
Articles  of  Confederation,  298. 
Ashby  Castle,  home  of  Dudley,  i,  13,  14. 
Assembly  of  Westminster  divines,  342. 
Assistants,  reduced  in  number,  88 ;  are  made 

representatives  of    the  people  and  of    the 

freemen,  94,  95.  118. 

Assistants  and  deputies  contest,  1643,  189. 
Assistants,  Court  of,  last  one  in  England,  59; 

first    court  of,  Charlestown,  91;  a  court  of 

judicature,  93  ;   judicial  powers  transferred 

to,  255. 

BACON,  LORD,  9,  18,  27,  28. 


Ballot,  introduced,  165 ;  beans  used  for,  372. 

Baptism,  not  the  true  and  political  power,  341; 
in  1651,  dangers  to  the  colony,  407. 

Bargains  in  poetry,  417. 

Bay  Psalm  Book,  256,  275. 

Bay  of  Massachusetts,  79,  80. 

Beaumont  and  Fletcher,  18. 

Becket,  Thomas  a,  36. 

Beer,  wholesome,  407. 

Belcher,  Gov.  Jonathan,  418. 

Bellingham,  Richard,  in  law-making,  266,  280, 
282;  governor,  1641,  and  unpopular,  279; 
married,  280 ;  resigns,  282  ;  compared  with 
Dudley,  282  ;  admonished  by  the  Court,  281 ; 
and  Saltonstall  oppose  the  assistants,  294 ; 
reconciled  to  the  magistrates,  294 ;  and  Sal 
tonstall  against  the  magistrates  in  the  sow 
business,  315. 

Bible,  the,  in  politics,  190;  supreme  law,  265  ; 
in  Massachusetts,  412. 

Bigotry  in  Massachusetts,  353 ;  of  Thomas 
Dudley,  279,  423. 

Blackstone,  Mr.,  and  Boston,  Mass.,  84. 

Blasphemy  and  Roger  Williams,  136,  137. 

Body  of  Liberties,  203,  265,  285,  286. 

Book  of  discipline,  344. 

Books  on  the  law,  371. 

Boston,  England,  home  of  Dudley,  31,  34,  49. 

Boston,  Massachusetts,  Puritans  in,  66;  for 
merly  Trimountain,  79;  settlement  of,  85; 
name  of,  92  ;  made  the  permanent  capital  of 
Massachusetts,  92  ;  or  Cambridge  to  be  the 
capital,  155  ;  and  Ann  Hutchinson,  224;  dis 
turbed  by  Captain  Stagg,  323. 

Botolph,  St.,  church  of,  49. 

Boyle,  Hon.  Robert,  and  the  gospel  in  Massa 
chusetts,  392. 

Boys,  military  drill  of,  328. 

Bradstreet,  Anne,  4,  464  ;  and  her  father,  247  . 
earliest  poet,  262. 

Bradstreet,  Simon,  58,  84,  464 ;  steward  of 
Earl  of  Lincoln,  47;  first  winter  in  Boston, 
84;  selectman  of  Cambridge  in  1634-5,  >32- 

Brenton,  Martha,  desiring  an  Irish  boy  and 
girl,  request  granted,  416. 

British  monarchy,  collapse  of,  341. 

Browne,  John  and  Samuel,  sent  to  England, 
81. 

Bunyan,  John,  18. 

Burdett,  George,  and  Dudley,  240. 

Burglars,  371. 

Business  habits  of  Dudley,  289. 

Byron  and  Westminster  Abbey,  436. 

CALEF,  ROBERT,  421. 

Calvinism,  its  influence  for  liberty  in  England, 
47  ;  in  Massachusetts,  357,  384. 


480 


INDEX 


Cam  and  the  Isis,  influence  from,  in  America, 
190. 

Cambridge,  England,  University,  Puritan  in 
fluence  of,  31  ;  home  of  Puritanism,  48 ;  in 
fluence  of,  in  America,  191  ;  men  in  America, 
256. 

Cambridge  and  Oxford,  287. 

Cambridge  agreement,  72. 

Cambridge,  Massachusetts,  first  intended  to 
be  the  capital,  92  ;  founded  by  Thomas  Dud 
ley,  123  ;  an  early  capital  of  Massachusetts, 
123,  124  ;  canal  in,  124  ;  fortification  of,  125, 
127  ;  provision  to  secure  beauty  and  safety 
of,  130,  131 ;  early  description  of,  130-132  ; 
selectmen  of,  132  ;  or  Boston  to  be  the  capi 
tal,  95,96,  132,  135;  the  capital,  1634,  158; 
Cambridge  faction,  190,319;  settlers  from, 
in  Connecticut,  210;  synod  of,  223,  344;  fa 
mous  election  at,  234;  and  the  United  Colo 
nies,  326. 

Capital  crimes,  266. 

Capital  punishment  and  Miantonomoh,  312. 

Carpenter,  William,  300. 

Castle  Island,  Boston,  183. 

Catechism,  shorter  and  longer,  342. 

Cathedral  service,  82. 

Catholics,  Roman,  and  Roger  Williams,  137. 

Caterpillars,  349. 

Caucus,  170,  296. 

Character  of  Dudley  with  the  Earl  of  Lincoln, 
34,  40,  41;  established  in  England,  un 
changed  in  America,  102-104,  429. 

Charles  I.,  33,  35  ;  death  of,  and  Dudley,  390. 

Charles  River  and  Dudley's  land,  133. 

Charlestown,  Massachusetts,  78,  79,  83,  84. 

Charta,  Magna,  30,  265,  171. 

Charter  of  Harvard  College,  243  ;  in  1650, 
394- 

Charter  of  Massachusetts,  granted,  55  ;  the 
question  of  its  transfer  to  America  consid 
ered,  52,  70-75,  145  ;  how  regarded  by  the 
people,  90 ;  freemen  and  the,  94  ;  removal  to 
America,  66,  75,  145  ;  writ  of  quo  warranto, 
185 ;  ordered  to  be  returned  to  England, 
185  ;  powers  of,  348. 

Child,  Major  John,  337;  a  disturber  in  Eng 
land,  346. 

Child  and  parent,  359. 

Children  of  Dudley  by  first  marriage,  there 
were  five,  25,  464,  465,  467,  468,  469. 

Children,  protection  of,  407. 

Christianity,  planting  of,  in  America,  76, 77. 

Chuff,  Indian,  and  Roger  Williams,  313. 

Church  of  Sempringham,  the  old,  37,  38. 

Church  of  England,  and  the  Humble  Request, 
60-63. 

Church,  First,  81-83. 

Church  in  America,  need  of  simple  services 
in,  82. 

Church  and  state  united,  129. 

Church  and  the  drama  in  Massachusetts,  267. 

Church  in  New  England,  269. 

Church  members  only  to  be  freemen,  119. 

Church  membership  restriction  limited,  365. 

Churches  established  on  the  model  of  that  at 
Salem,  116. 

Citizens  not  church  members  allowed  to  hold 
office,  365. 

Clarke,  Dr.  John,  second  charter  of  Rhode 
Island,  201  :  soul  liberty,  201 ;  father  of 
Rhode  Island,  201. 

Cleever,  Rev.  Mr.,  minister  and  friend  of 
Dudley,  24. 

Clinton,  Theophilus,  fourth  Earl  of  Lincoln, 


Clipsham,  49,  53. 

Cloth:  linen,  cotton,  and  woolen,  272. 

Clothing  and  the  General  Court,  254. 

Coats  of  arms,  Thomas  and  Joseph  Dudley,  5. 

Coddington,  William,  and  wife,  passengers  on 
the  Arbella,  58;  letter  of,  to  Dudley,  276. 

Coddington,  Mrs.  William,  death  of,  85. 

Coining  money  in  Massachusetts,  413. 

Coke,  Lord,  18,  26,  27,  51. 

Cole,  Robert,  300. 

College,  the,  committee  appointed  to  take 
order  for,  242. 

Colony  in  distress  upon  arrival  of  Puritans,  77. 

Common  Pleas,  Court  of,  and  Dudley,  26,  z*, 
29>  51. 

Common  Prayer  Book,  disuse  of,  in  America, 
81. 

Common  schools  in  Massachusetts,  255,  256, 
366,  367- 

Commonwealths  in  England  and  America,  289. 

Compton  family,  friendly  to  Dudley  family,  14. 

Compton,  Henry,  or  Baron  Compton,  i. 

Compton,  William,  family  of,  12. 

Comptons  not  Puritans,  14. 

Compton-Winyates,  home  of  Dudley,  12. 

Conant,  Roger,  at  Salem,  Mass.,  55. 

Concord,  land  of  Dudley  at,  251-253. 

Confederacy  of  New  England,  1643,  22  ;  of 
colonies,  298  ;  and  famihsm,  354  ;  the  power 
of,  in  the  world,  373  ;  Dudley  president  of,  in 
1649,  389;  and  Massachusetts,  427. 

Confession  of  Faith,  342,  344. 

Congregationalism  in  America,  82,  345. 

Connecticut,  settled  from  Massachusetts,  210  ; 
river,  rights  on,  283  ;  Massachusetts  and,  in 
trouble,  376  ;  river,  retaliatory  act,  394. 

Conscience  and  suffrage,  164;  rights  of,  in 
Massachusetts,  357,  358. 

Constitution  of  United  States  and  Henry  IV. 
of  France,  22. 

Conveyances,  fraudulent,  272. 

Corn,  Dudley's  trades  in,  vindicated,  in ; 
prices  of,  372. 

Corn  Hill,  Boston,  155. 

Cotton,  Rev.  John,  minister  of  Dudley,  49; 
antagonistic  to  Hooker,  156;  friend  of  Win- 
throp,  160  ;  sermon  on  the  stability  of  office, 
161 ;  code  of,  not  approved,  203 ;  and  the 
Council  for  Life,  212;  and  Wheelwright  re 
cant  from  Antinomian  error,  224  ;  letter  from 
Sir  Richard  Saltonstall  to,  241 ;  letter  of 
Dudley  to,  257;  the  ministry  of,  269;  and 
Gorton,  305 ;  and  Hooker  and  Norton,  in 
fluence  of,  in  England,  343. 

Council  for  Life,  Dudley  of,  213;  in  the  Hing- 
ham  case,  336. 

Council  of  Plymouth,  55. 

Council,  the  Standing,  Dudley  chosen  mem 
ber  of,  213. 

Countess  of  Lincoln,  42,  77. 

Court  of  Common  Pleas,  England,  26,  27,  29, 

Court  records,  255. 

Courts,  the,  acts  of,  revealed  public  opinion, 
153  ;  four  General  Courts  to  be  held  yearly, 
170;  county  created,  215  ;  General,  time  of, 
fixed,  215;  county,  255;  courts  of  Massa 
chusetts,  392. 

Cowes,  Isle  of  Wight,  Puritans  at,  59. 

Cradock,  Matthew,  55  ;  farewell  of,  to  the 
Puritans,  60. 

Cromwell,  Oliver,  50 ;  attempted  emigration  to 
America,  250;  friendship  of,  to  Massachu 
setts,  349 ;  his  attempt  to  colonize  Ireland 
from  America,  404. 


INDEX 


481 


Cross  cut  put  of  the  ensign  by  Endicott,  152. 
Cruel  punishments  in  Massachusetts,  139, 140. 
Cutshamekin,  302. 
Cutts,  Major-General  Lord  John,  461. 

DANA,  RICHARD  H.,  8. 

Dana,  Richard  H.,  Jr.,  8. 

Danforth,  Rev.  S.,  417. 

D'Aulnay,  350,  351. 

Deeds,  acknowledgment  of,  272. 

Democracy  an  early  subject  of  solicitude,  94 ; 
dangers  from,  171  ;  and  Massachusetts,  317  ; 
in  Massachusetts,  335. 

Dennison,  Daniel,  258,  465;  Mrs.  Patience, 
465  ;  William,  258. 

Deputies  and  assistants  contest,  1643,  189. 

Dexter,  Thomas,  relative  importance  of  towns, 
153  ;  in  the  bilboes,  153. 

Diary  of  Dudley,  none,  91. 

Disability  to  hold  office  not  limited  to  the 
Puritan  state,  120,  121. 

Discipline  of  the  Assembly,  rejected  in  Amer 
ica,  344  ;  of  the  synod  and  the  churches, 
391  ;  book  of,  adopted,  406. 

Divine  right  of  kings,  27. 

Dod,  Rev.  Mr.,  minister  and  friend  of  Dud 
ley,  24,  32. 

Dogmatism  in  Massachusetts,  353. 

Donne,  John,  18. 

Dorchester,  settlement  of,  85. 

Downing,  Emanuel,  at  Sempringham,  44  ;  and 
slavery,  333. 

Doyle,  J.  A.,  strictures  on  Dudley,  277. 

Drama,  immoral  influence  of,  267. 

Dress,  Court  made  rules  upon,  186 ;  superfluity 
in?  254;  and  rank,  410. 

Druillette,  Father,  in  Boston,  399. 

Dryden,  John,  18. 

Dudley  Castle,  6,  7. 

Dudley  family,  friendly  to  Compton  family,  14. 

Dudley  mansion,  destroyed  at  Roxbury,  262. 

Dudley,  Anne  (Bradstreet),  58,  464. 

Dudley,  Baron,  6. 

Dudley,  Dean,  3,  4. 

Dudley,  Deborah  (Wade),  469. 

Dudley,  Dorothy,  death  of,  317. 

Dudley,  Gov.  Joseph,  8,453;  Harvard  Col 
lege  and,  243-245;  tomb  of,  417;  unpop 
ularity  of,  injurious  to  Thomas  Dudley,  434  ; 
agent  to  England,  454;  president  of  New 
England,  455;  prisoner  in  Boston,  455; 
Episcopalian,  457  :  quarrel  with  the  Ma 
thers,  458  ;  and  Richard  Steele,  461 ;  lieu 
tenant-governor  Isle  of  Wight,  461;  exalted 
opinions  respecting,  461,  462. 

Dudley,  Mercy,  58,  468;  married  John  Wood- 
bridge,  287. 

Dudley,  Paul,  Chief  Justice,  8,  459;  bene 
factor  of  the  college,  243, 417 ;  sketch  of,  472. 

Dudley,  Paul,  son  of  Thomas  Dudley,  472. 

Dudley,  Patience,  (Dennison),  58,  465. 

Dudley,  Robert,  Earl  of  Leicester,  3. 

Dudley,  Roger,  father  of  Thomas  Dudley,  2, 
3 ;  connected  by  birth  with  Sir  Philip  Sidney, 

Dudley,  Samuel,  4,  58,  467. 

Dudley,  Sarah  (Keayne  and  Pacey),  58, 
469. 

Dudley,  Thomas,  birth  of,  i ;  descended  from 
the  same  ancestry  as  the  Duke  of  Northum 
berland,  3,  4,  6 ;  name  of,  honored,  8,  9; 
LZ—J  more  remarkable  for  life  work  than  ancestry, 
8,  9  ;  a  Puritan,  not  interested  in  ancestry, 
g,  10 ;  parents  and  childhood  of,  10 ;  sister 
of,  10 ;  family  on  side  of  mother  probably 


Puritan,  but  not  thought  to  have  been  on 
father's  side,  10 ;  a  Latin  scholar,  n;  and 
Mrs.  Puefroy,  n  ;  associations  in  England, 
13-18;  courteous  manners  of,  15;  was  in 
Europe  at  a  very  important  era,  18  ;  joins  the 
army,  is  made  a  captain,  17,  19,  20;  popu 
lar  in  youth,  19  ;  return  to  England  from  the 
war,  23,  24;  married  to  Dorothy  Yorke,  24; 
of  gentle  blood,  25  ;  clerk  of  Judge  Nicolls, 
25  ;  skillful  in  drawing  legal  papers,  25 ; 
was  probably  with  Lord  Compton  until 
1597,25;  in  London,  27-30;  in  service  of 
the  Earl  of  Lincoln,  31;  Dudley  and  the 
English  statutes  in  opposition  to  the  loan, 
35  ;  stewardship  of  Earl  of  Lincoln's  estate, 
39,  40 ;  conscientious,  40 ;  character  with  the 
Earl  of  Lincoln,  40,  41  ;  a  thorough  business 
man,  41 ;  secured  a  match  between  the  Earl 
of  Lincoln  and  Lady  Bridget,  Countess  of 
Lincoln,  42  ;  his  friends  in  England,  38,  40, 
50 ;  his  associations  in  England,  influence 
upon  his  character,  50-53  ;  motives  for  emi 
grating,  51  ;  considering  the  separations  and 
sacrifices  resulting  from  emigration,  52,  53 ; 
Dudley  and  family  passengers  on  the  Ar- 
bella,  58  ;  his  history  that  of  his  country,  75, 
91,  425;  would  not  emigrate  without  the 
charter,  52,  70-75;  Dudley  and  Winthrop 
explore  for  places  to  settle,  78  ;  Dudley  and 
First  Church  covenant,  80  ;  Dudley  and  fam 
ily,  first  winter  in  Boston,  84;  constant  in 
attendance  at  church,  91  ;  principal  founder 
of  Cambridge,  95,  123  ;  Dudley  and  Winthrop 
have  a  disagreement  respecting  the  removal 
by  Winthrop  of  his  house  from  Cambridge, 
96-98,  102,  104,  105;  Dudley  and  family  set 
tled  at  Cambridge,  96  ;  military  knowledge, 
96,  97 ;  character  of,  has  suffered  from  the 
diary  of  Winthrop,  97 ;  is  said  to  have  re 
signed  his  place  as  assistant  in  anger  to 
wards  Winthrop,  97,  98 ;  represented  un 
justly  as  over-rash,  98,  99  ;  thought  to  have 
been  strict  with  Roger  Williams,  99 ;  wisdom 
approved,  100;  champion  for  the  truth, 
loo ;  abuse  of,  100;  trusty  pillar,  100;  un 
just  epithets  applied  to  him,  100 ;  high 
praise  from  Winthrop  and  other  contempo 
raries,  100  ;  great  forbearance  of,  101 ;  con 
sideration  as  to  the  propriety  of  his  resigna 
tion,  101  ;  resignation  of,  101,  104;  trades  in 
corn  criticised  by  Winthrop,  102  ;  house  of, 
not  extravagant,  103,  104;  the  peacemaker, 
101,  104;  no  charges  against,  107;  Dudley 
and  Winthrop  quarrel,  106-110;  said  to  have 
been  in  passion,  109 ;  has  the  support  of 
the  mediators,  110-112  ;  thrifty,  in  ;  falsely 
represented  as  penurious,  in,  135;  minis 
ters  sustain  Dudley  against  Winthrop,  112; 
Dudley  and  the  fort  at  Boston,  113,  114, 
J55>  I5°!  Dudley  and  Winthrop  at  peace, 
115;  possessed  a  sincere,  rugged  character, 
115;  letter  with  reference  to  the  sufferings 
of  the  first  winter  in  Boston,  116;  founded 
Cambridge,  123  ;  residence  of,  in  Cambridge, 
133,  134;  two  hundred  acres  of  land  in  Cam 
bridge,  133;  to  exercise  prophecy,  134;  se 
vere  temper,  135;  affectionate,  135;  answer 
to  Gardiner,  145-149;  Dudley  and  the  bish 
ops,  147,  149;  Dudley  and  the  descent  of 
Christ  into  hell,  146,  148  ;  Dudley  and  im 
penetrable  minds,  146,  149;  not  bigoted  or 
intolerant,  149  ;  not  superstitious,  149  ;  com 
pared  with  Winthrop,  150,  194;  Dudley  and 
the  cross  in  the  ensign,  150-152  ;  controversy 
with  Winthrop,  155;  overcome  by  Boston 


482 


INDEX 


faction,  157:  absent  from  Court,  157;  emi 
grates  to  Ipswich,  158  ;  Winthrop  and  Dud 
ley,  importance  of ,  in  the  colony,  159;  gov 
ernor,  1634,  160;  with  the  people,  172; 
relation  of,  to  Plymouth  misunderstood, 
173-181;  Dudley  and  John  Hocking,  173- 
iSo ;  letter  of,  respecting  Plymouth,  177, 
179;  Dudley  and  Winthrop  in  the  Plymouth 
trouble,  181 ;  as  a  soldier,  184;  never  had 
charges  made  against  his  administration  of 
affairs,  186  ;  Dudley  and  the  negative  voice, 
189  ;  patience  of,  189  ;  governorship  of,  and 
rotation  in  office,  njo;  Dudley  and  John 
Cotton,  190;  entertainment  of  the  Court  in 
Cambridge,  192  ;  Dudley  and  the  cross  in 
the  ensign,  193  ;  not  fanatical,  194'.  Endicott 
compared  with,  193  ;  opinion  of  Roger  Wil 
liams,  194 ;  charge  of  bigotry  in  Roger  Wil 
liams  case,  198;  bitter  things  said  of,  198; 
narrowness  and  bigotry  of,  198;  compared 
with  Roger  Williams,  200  ;  courage  of,  200  ; 
Dudley  and  the  laws,  202  ;  Dudley  and  fish 
ing  trade,  204;  business  qualities  of,  204; 
severe  strictures  upon,  207  ;  high  opinion  of 
Harry  Vane,  Mr.  Peters,  and  Mr.  Haynes 
respecting,  209 ;  went  to  reside  in  Ipswich 
in  1635,211;  wrote  no  tracts:  Massachu 
setts  is  his  answer  and  proof  of  his  labor, 
210;  vindication  of  himself,  213,  214;  popu 
lar,  214;  loss  of  Hooker  and  Haynes  sus 
tained  by,  217 ;  obedience  to  conviction, 
217  ;  ensign  on  the  fort,  217;  much  quoted, 
poetry  of,  227  ;  Mrs.  Hutchinson  and  Dud 
ley,  226-232 ;  political  liberality  suggests 
religious  liberality,  231 ;  lieutenant-colonel, 
233;  foreign  wars  and  Dudley,  236;  letters 
of,  to  Winthrop,  236-238  ;  Dudley  and  Lech- 
ford's  book,  238 ;  George  Burdett  and  Dud 
ley,  240;  deliberation  of,  240;  Dudley  and 
Harvard  College,  242 ;  generosity  of,  246, 
247  ;  Dudley  and  the  Roxbury  Latin  School, 
247 ;  Dudley  and  the  construction  of  the 
laws,  248;  on  the  committee  for  making 
laws,  248  ;  Dudley  and  Winthron  reconciled 
at  Concord,  252 ;  visit  with  Winthrop  to 
Concord,  251-253 ;  home  at  Roxbury,  256- 
262;  letter  to  John  Cotton,  257;  library  of, 
259-261 ;  most  eminent  citizen  of  colonial 
Roxbury,  262  ;  mansion  destroyed,  262  ;  con 
stantly  a  magistrate,  263 ;  Dudley  and  others 
deputed  to  make  a  draft  of  laws,  264  ;  law- 
making,  264 ;  Dudley  and  Winthrop  com 
pared,"  271;  governor  in  1640,  270,  271; 
quotations  from  contemporaries  respecting 
him,  270,  271  ;  approved  by  Winthrop  and 
others,  270,271;  Dudley  and  the  ambitious 
ministers,  271;  Dudley  and  Aliantonomoh, 
273;  farm  granted  to,  at  Ipswich,  275;  se 
verely  blamed  for  excluding  Coddington  and 
others  in  his  answer,  276;  Dudley  and  a 
letter  of  Eaton  and  others,  276 ;  refusal  to 
treat  with  Rhode  Island,  276  ;  strictures  on, 
by  Savage,  Arnold,  and  J.  A.  Doyle,  277, 
278;  letter  to  Winthrop,  279;  suit  against 
Mr.  Howe,  280;  Winthrop  and  Dudley,  first 
in  dignity  and  importance,  209,  282  ;  re'signs, 

281  ;    Dudley   and    Bellingham    compared, 

282  ;  strictures  on,  by  Arnold,  284 ;   letter  to 
John   Woodbridge,    287;    not   sordid,    289; 
heart-burning  of,   in  1642,  ago;   not  disap 
pointed  in  election,  290;  defends  the  Stand 
ing  Council,  294 ;  literary  style  of,  297 ;  Dud 
ley  and  United  Colonies,  298,  299  ;  a  foremost 
leader,    308 ;    Dudley    and    Miantonomoh, 
314 ;   states   his   conviction  to    Rev.   Mr. 


Rogers,  316;  second  marriage  to  Catharine 
Hackburn,  319;  Dudley  and  Winthrop  party, 
319;  major-general,  325;  to  receive  public 
letters  and  donations,  326  ;  Dudley  and  ac 
knowledgment  of  gifts,  326 ;  Dudley  and 
Eliot  neighbors  in  Roxbury,  328  ;  Winthrop 
party  triumph,  328  ;  firmness  of,  335;  tact 
of,  336;  Dudley  and  the  English  Revolu 
tion,  340;  Dudley  and  the  laws,  340;  Dudley 
and  the  Body  of  Liberties,  340;  Nowell, 
Bradstreet,  only  old  assistants,  345  ;  commis 
sioner  to  Penobscot,  351,  352  ;  commissioner 
of  United  Colonies,  360;  Dudley  and  Hook 
er,  friendship  of,  361  ;  Dudley  and  Rev. 
Mr.  Eliot,  friends,  362  ;  Dudley  and  Eliot 
compared,  363  ;  outranks  Endicott,  373 ; 
deputy  governor,  1648,  374 ;  Dudley  and 
Fenwick,  377;  Dudley  and  Pynchon's  let 
ter,  378;  reliance  of  Winthrop  upon,  379  ; 
Dudley  and  Winthrop,  friendship  of,  380, 
381 ;  relations  of  Dudley  and  Winthrop, 
384 ;  dependence  of  Winthrop  upon,  384 ; 
tradition  respecting  last  visit  to  Winthrop 
an  error,  386;  Dudley  and  long  hair,  387  ; 
commissioner  in  1649  for  the  last  time,  389; 
illness  of,  389;  Dudley  and  the  Confedera 
tion,  389  ;  next  to  Winthrop,  389  ;  Dudley 
and  death  of  Charles  I.,  390;  governor, 
1650,  393;  experience  of,  in  America,  393  ; 
Dudley  and  Isaac  Johnson,  394;  Dudley 
and  Bozoun  Allen,  396  ;  Dudley  and  Father 
Druillette,  399 ;  testimony  of  the  Court  to, 
400  ;  letter  of  Gov.  Winslow  to,  400 ;  signs  pe 
tition  to  Parliament,  401  ;  in  office  and  out, 
411  ;  death  of,  417 ;  funeral  of,  417  ;  grave 
of,  417;  inscription  on  tomb,  417  ;  Dudley 
and  contracts,  417;  trusty  old  stud,  417; 
a  trusty  pillar,  419;  children  of,  422,  453, 
464,  465,  467-469,  472 ;  epitaph  on,  by  Anne 
Bradstreet,  422 ;  will  of,  423  ;  Dudley  and 
heresy,  423;  Dudley  and  Massachusetts  in 
separable,  425 ;  Dudley  and  the  Bible,  430  ; 
character  in  England  and  America  consid 
ered,  430;  poetry  of,  and  fanatics,  430; 
Dudley  and  his  critics,  430,  431  ;  not  penu 
rious,  431  ;  good  opinions  by  his  contempo 
raries,  432-435  ;  Increase  Mather's  opinion 
of,  432  ;  fame  impaired  by  Joseph  Dudley, 
433;  president  of  the  Confederacy,  435'; 
name  of,  left  out  of  the  hall  of  representa 
tives,  435  ;  careless  of  his  fame,  435  ;  Dudley 
and  Wirthrop  one  in  party  and  in  faith, 
435;  Dudley  and  the  higher  law,  436;  to 
public  recognition  in  modern  times,  436 ; 
sterling  worth  of,  436 ;  the  peer  of  any 
among  the  founders,  436  ;  family  of,  distin 
guished,  462  ;  letter  of,  to  Countess  of  Lin 
coln,  437. 

Dudley,  Mrs.  Thomas,  death  of,  at  Roxbury, 
Mass.,  1643,  317;  high  praise  of,  from  Win 
throp  and  other  contemp9raries,  317. 

Dudley,  Colonel  William,  417;  sketch  of,  475. 

Dunkirkers,  64. 

Dutch,  the,  in  Massachusetts,  299;  of  New 
Netherland,  374. 

Duties,  repeal  of,  on  goods  of  other  colonies, 
394- 

EDGE  HILL,  12. 

Educated  ministry,  415. 

Education  in  Massachusetts,  255,  329,  353, 
366  ;  ancient  and  modern  ideas  of,  411 ;  im 
portance  of,  415. 

Elders,  the,  and  Roger  Williams,  194. 

Election  sermon,  327. 


INDEX 


483 


Elections,  change  of  method,  285. 

Electors,  system  of  tens,  285. 

Eliot,  Rev.  John,  and  Dudley,  258 ;  Eliot  and 
Dudley  neighbors  in  Roxbury,  328 ;  anagram 
on  Dudley,  329;  opinion  of  Gorton,  346; 
Dudley  and  Eliot  friends,  362;  Dudley 
compared  with,  363;  Eliot  and  long  hair, 
388  ;  grave  of,  421. 

Emigrants,  sick  from  hardships  upon  arrival, 
TJ  ;  return  to  England  discouraged,  86. 

Emigration  from  eastern  counties  to  Massa 
chusetts,  56;  from  America  prevented,  139; 
from  England  ceased  in  1640,  274 ;  to  Amer 
ica,  54,  250. 

Endicott,  John,  emigration  to  America,  56 ; 
Endicott  and  the  cross  in  the  ensign,  152; 
compared  with  Dudley,  193;  Dudley  and 
Endicott,  282  ;  second  to  Dudley,  373  ;  gov 
ernor,  387 ;  Endicott  and  the  king's  colors, 
388  ;  Endicott  and  long  hair,  388  ;  rash  and 
vindictive,  434. 

Enfranchised  people,  335. 

England,  Church  of,  in  America,  81. 

England,  government  of  Massachusetts  in,  ab 
scinded  from  the  charter,  68 ;  Puritans  in 
America,  honest  towards,  82;  the  Botany 
Bay  of  the  colony,  92  ;  appealed  to,  263. 

English  Church  and  Williams,  136. 

English  Revolution  felt  in  America,  289. 

Entertainment,  place  of,  268. 

Enthusiasts,  219. 

Episcopacy,  342. 

Episcopal  Church  and  the  Humble  Request, 
60-63. 

Episcopalians  and  Roger  Williams,  136;  in 
Massachusetts,  337. 

Epithets,  some  specimens  applied  to  Dudley, 
100. 

Essex  faction,  320. 

Estates  in  care  of  Dudley,  39. 

Evelyn,  John,  18. 

Everett,  Edward,  touching  words  respecting 
the  early  emigration  to  America,  88. 

FAIRFAX,  LORD  THOMAS,  50. 

Faith,  Confession  of,  342,  344. 

Familists,  219. 

Fanatics  and  Dudley's  stanzas,  430. 

Farewell  to  England  of  the  emigrants,  59. 

Fashion  in  the  dress  of  women,  254. 

Fashions,  laws  respecting,  186. 

Fast  day  brings  rain,  270. 

Fasting  and  prayer,  325. 

Fens  of  Lincolnshire,  37,  49,  50. 

Fenwick,  George,  answer  to  letter  of,  283  ;  and 

Saybrook,375;  and  Massachusetts,  378. 
Feudal  servitudes,  266. 
Feudal  system  and  New  England,  57. 
Feudalism  extinguished,  286;  in  church,  338  ; 

in  Massachusetts,  393. 
Fidelity,  oath  of,  414. 
Fiennes,  William,  Lord  Saye  and  Sele,  father 

of  Bridget,  Countess  of  Lincoln,  46. 
First  Table  of  the  Law  and  Williams,  136. 
Fishing  trade  of  Massachusetts,  204. 
Fiske,   Mr.   John,   strictures  on   the   Dudley 

name,  7. 

Flemings,  influence  of,  in  England,  48. 
Fort  in  Boston,  finishing  of,  and  palisade  at 

Cambridge,  113,  155. 
Fort  Hill  in  Boston,  155. 
Fotheringay  Castle,  20. 
Franchise,  limit  of,   120,    121,  317;   extreme 

boundary  of,  335. 
Fraudulent  conveyances,  272. 


Freemen,  one  hundred  and  eighteen  admitted, 
93  ;  cause  of  anxiety  to  the  government,  93  ; 
by  reason  of  modesty,  delegate  their  powers, 
118;  to  be  church  members,  119;  become 
suspicious  of  the  governor  and  assistants, 
128 ;  agitated  over  Winthrop,  162 ;  impor 
tant  change  in  the  oath  of,  164. 

French  on  the  north  and  east,  350. 

French,  the,  in  Massachusetts,  299. 

Friends  arrive  in  Boston  after  decease  of  Dud 
ley,  434- 

Funeral  of  Dudley,  417. 

GALILEO,  18. 

Gardiner,  Sir  Christopher,  140,  141,  142,  144; 

answer  to  the  petition  of,  145-152. 
General  Court,  construction  of,  93  ;  time  of, 

fixed,    215;    judicial    powers    taken    from, 

255- 

Generosity  of  Dudley,  246,  247. 
Geraldine,  wife  of  the  first  Earl  of  Lincoln, 

Gilbert,  St.,  36,  37,  43. 

Gilbertines,  Order  of,  36,  37. 

Goldman,  Emma,  sent  to  Massachusetts,  138. 

Gorges,    Sir    Ferdinando,     142,     144;     Lady 

Frances,  sister  of  Earl  of  Lincoln,  46. 
Gorton,  Samuel,  and  Miantonomoh,  273  ;    at 

Pawtuxet,   300;  religious  opinions  of,  305, 

306;  and  Cotton,  305;  admirers  of,  312;  a 

disturber  in  England,  346  ;  allowed  to  pass 

through  Massachusetts,  375. 
Gospel,  the,  propagating  of,  in  Massachusetts, 

392. 

Gothic  art,  21. 
Government   of    Massachusetts,  construction 

of,  93- 
Governor  and  company,  letter  to  brethren  of 

the  church,  on  departure  for  America,  60. 
Governor,  the,  and  deputy,  with  assistants,  to 

make  the  laws,  118. 
Grave  of  Thomas  Dudley,  417. 
Graves,  Thomas,  79. 

"  Great  House,"  the,  Charlestown,  79,  80,  91. 
Great  Tavern,  79. 
Great  Rebellion,  340. 
Grove,  Mary,  141,  143. 
Guns,  leather,  372. 

HACKBURN,  MRS.  CATHARINE,  marriage  of, 
to  Dudley,  319. 

Halberts  and  swords,  persons  with,  to  attend 
the  governor,  187. 

Hampden,  John,  50  ;  attempted  emigration  to 
America,  250. 

Harold  at  the  battle  of  Hastings,  and  New 
England,  57. 

Harvard  College,  founded,  225 ;  the  Dudley 
family  and  Harvard  College,  243  ;  public 
education  and  Harvard  College,  255 ;  Dud 
ley  and  Harvard  College,  286,  297 ;  admis 
sion  to,  287;  the  United  Colonies  and  Har 
vard  College,  326;  in  Massachusetts,  353; 
assisted  366  ;  charter  of,  in  1650,  394  ;  dona 
tions  to,  415. 

Haselrig,  Sir  Arthur,  attempted  emigration  to 
America,  250. 

Hastings,  battle  of,  and  Massachusetts,  57. 

Hawthorne,  Nathaniel,  description  of  Concord 
River,  252. 

Haynes,  Hon.  John,  in  the  family  of  Gov 
ernor  Dudley  at  one  time,  124;  in  Cam 
bridge,  130,  132  ;  emigrates  to  Connecticut, 
158  ;  friend  of  Dudley,  190  ;  high  opinion  of 
Dudley,  209. 


484 


INDEX 


Henry  II.,  36. 

Henry  IV.  of  France  (Navarre),  3,  20-23. 

Henry  VIII.,  12,  13  ;  Lincolnshire  and  Henry 
VIII.,  48- 

Herbert,  George,  18. 

Heresy,  Scripture  antidote  for,  224. 

Heroism  of  the  Puritans,  86. 

Herrick,  Robert,  18. 

Higginson,  Rev.  Francis,  55. 

Higginson,  T.  W.,  125. 

Highways  improved,  255 ;  selectmen  and  high 
ways,  293. 

Hildersham,  Arthur,  minister  of  Dudley,  31. 

Hingham  difficulty,  335;  and  Winthrop,  336. 

Hobbes,  Thomas,  18. 

Hocking,  John,  slain  at  Kennebec,  173; 
Hocking  and  Dudley,  173-181. 

Hogs,  become  of  interest  in  securing  the  friend 
ship  of  Winthrop  and  Dudley,  114;  the 
cause  of  an  important  revolution,  162,  167, 
168. 

Holland,  its  influence  on  Lincolnshire  and 
England,  48,  49. 

Holmes,  Oliver  Wendell,  descended  from  Dud 
ley,  8. 

Hooker,  Richard,  18. 

Hooker,  Rev.  Thomas,  in  the  family  of  Dud 
ley  at  one  time,  124 ;  first  pastor  at  Cam 
bridge,  132;  antagonistic  to  Cotton,  156; 
emigration  to  Connecticut,  158,  188,  210,  217  ; 
president  of  the  Cambridge  Synod,  223 ;  the 
ministry  of,  270;  influence  of,  in  England, 
343 ;  Hooker  and  Dudley,  friendship  of, 
361 ;  death  of,  361. 

Hotfels  in  America,  242. 

Howard,  Thomas,  Earl  of  Surrey,  37. 

Howe,  Mr.,  title  to  a  mill,  281. 

Hubbard,  Rev.  William,  eulogy  on  Dudley, 
422  ;  opinion  of  Dudley,  434. 

Humble  Request,  60,  63. 

Humphrey,  Lady  Susan,  sister  of  Earl  of  Lin 
coln,  46. 

Hutchinson,  Mrs.  Ann,  218  ;  new  heresies,  284. 

Hypocrisie  Unmasked,  311. 

IDOLATRY  and  Roger  Williams,  136. 

Immigration  into  Massachusetts  in  1640,  274. 

Independency  in  Massachusetts,  338 ;  and 
Presbyterianism,  342. 

Independent  spirit  in  America,  289. 

Indians,  not  permitted  to  bear  arms,  92 ;  to 
christianize,  one  of  the  great  objects  of  the 
emigration,  117;  care  of,  in  Massachusetts, 
272  ;  kindness  to,  76,  275  ;  the  cursed  race 
of  Ham,  275  ;  conspiracy  of,  312  ;  preaching 
to,  350;  worship  resisted,  357  ;  Indians  and 
Eliot,  362  ;  Indians  and  the  gospel  in  Mas 
sachusetts,  392. 

Intemperance  in  general,  355. 

Intolerance  of  Dudley,  278. 

Ipswich,  Dudley  resided  there  from  1635  *° 
1639,  211. 

Ireland,  colonization  of,  from  America  declined, 
404. 

Irish,  prejudice  against,  416. 

Ironsides  of  Cromwell,  50. 

Ivry,  battle  of,  2,  3. 

JAMES  I.,  13. 

Jeffrey,  Lord,  18. 

Jesuits  in  Massachusetts,  365  ;  in  Boston,  399. 

Johnson,  Lady  Arbella,  passenger  on  the  Ar- 
bella,  58  ;  on  English  soil  for  the  last  time, 
60 ;  in  danger  at  sea,  64,  65 ;  death  of,  86, 
87 ;  Dudley  and  Lady  Johnson,  394. 


Johnson,   Edward,  303 ;    opinion  of  Dudley, 

433- 

Johnson,  Isaac,  and  Lady  Arbella,  37,  45,  58; 
the  largest  financial  adventurer,  46;  John 
son  and  Dudley,  49,  S3  !  the  Humble  Re 
quest,  63 ;  would  not  emigrate  without  the 
charter,  73  ;  First  Church  covenant,  80,  81 ; 
death  of,  86,  87. 

ones,  Margaret,  a  witch,  382. 

onson,  Ben,  15,  18. 

udges,  power  of,  171. 

udicial  powers  changed,  255. 

udith,  Point,  in  Rhode  Island,  414 

urisdiction,  foreign,  344. 

ury,  trial  by,  171,  266. 

ustice,  distribution  of,  215. 

KEAYNE,  BENJAMIN,  253,  469. 

Keayne,  Captain  Robert,  commander  of  An 
cient  and  Honorable  Artillery  in  Boston, 
253  ;  and  the  sow,  314. 

Keayne,  Mrs.  Sarah,  253,  469. 

King  Philip  of  Mount  Hope,  the  successor  of 
Miantonomoh  in  his  purposes,  273. 

Kings,  anointed,  and  Dudley,  149. 

Knollys,  Rev.  Mr.,  Antinomian,  profligacy  of, 
220. 

LABOR,  wages,  and  prices,  118,  253. 

Land,  contracts  for,  in  writing,  416. 

Land,  free,  and  intolerance  in  Massachusetts, 
272,  273. 

Landholders  in  Massachusetts,  272. 

La  Tour,  350,  351. 

Laud,  Archbishop,  stirs  up  English  govern 
ment  against  Massachusetts,  181 ;  feared 
in  Massachusetts,  223  ;  Massachusetts  and, 
338. 

Law,  the  First  Table  of  the,  136. 

Law-making,  248,  264  ;  books,  371;  merchant, 
395- 

Laws  of  a  people,  indicate  their  progress,  90, 
395;  made  by  governor  and  assistants,  118; 
positive  need  of,  202 ;  historic  importance 
of,  248  ;  laws  of  the  colony,  how  made,  248, 
249;  written,  need  of,  248;  general,  system 
of,  264;  code  of,  in  Massachusetts,  266;  the 
first  code  of,  in  New  England,  320;  book  of 
1649,  391. 

Lawyers  in  Massachusetts  not  popular,  203. 

Learning,  advancement  of,  415. 

Leather,  production  of,  296;  guns,  372. 

Lechford,  Thomas  M.,  238. 

Lecture  to  begin  at  one  o'clock,  154. 

Legislation  of  Puritans  in  America,  90. 

Legislative  power  in  the  hands  of  the  governor 
and  assistants,  95. 

Legislature,  representative,  of  Massachusetts, 
its  remarkable  origin,  128. 

Leisler,  Jacob,  455. 

Letter  of  Dudley  to  the  Countess  of  Lincoln, 
42,  437;  of  Dudley  to  John  Cotton,  257; 
Humble  Request  to  English  Church,  60-63  ? 
of  Sir  Richard  Saltonstall  to  Mr.  Wilson 
and  Mr.  Cotton,  24. 

Leyden,  John  of,  219. 

Liberties,  Body  of,  203. 

Libertines,  Dudley's  opinion  of,  228,  423. 

Liberty,  new  era  of,  in  Massachusetts,  249 ; 
and  the  Puritans,  274;  in  Massachusetts,  393. 

Liberty  of  thought,  but  not  of  action,  230. 

Library  of  Dudley,  259-261. 

Lincoln,  Earl  of,  family  of,  31-42,  46,  47;  in 
the  Palatinate,  34, 38 ;  prisoner  in  the  Tower, 
36,  43- 


INDEX 


485 


Lincoln  family  and  Massachusetts,  45-47. 

Lincoln,  fourth  Earl,  and  Dudley,  40,  41. 

Lincoln,  Countess  of,  and  Dudley,  42,  77,  437. 

Lincolnshire  and  Henry  VIII.,  48. 

Literature  in  Massachusetts,  353. 

Liturgy,  set  aside,  81. 

Loans,  forced,  Charles  I.,  35. 

Locke,  John,  18. 

Long  hair  in  Massachusetts,  387. 

Long  Parliament,  274. 

Longfellow,  H.  W.,  and  Dudley's  land,  133. 

Lowell,  James  Russell,  on  the  narrowness  of 
the  Puritans,  99;  poem  respecting  Hamp- 
den  and  Cromwell,  250;  free  land,  free 
thought,  in  Massachusetts,  273  ;  and  the  in 
tolerant  Puritans,  272. 

Loyalty  of  the  Puritans  to  the  Church  of  Eng 
land,  60-64. 

Luther  and  Antinomians,  222,  232. 

MACAUI.AY,  statement  of  the  political  condi 
tion  at  the  close  of  the  French  war,  22. 

"  Macedonian  cry "  suggested  to  the  Puri 
tans,  76. 

Magistrate,  Dudley  always  one,  263. 

Magna  Charta,  265. 

Maiden,  78. 

Malefactors  may  be  dissected,  366. 

Manners  of  Dudley,  15,  180. 

Mansfeld,  Count,  34. 

Mansion  House,  Charlestown,  79. 

Manual  training,  370. 

Manufactures  in  England  and  the  Flemings, 
48 ;  encouraged,  272. 

Marlowe,  Christopher,  18. 

Mason,  John,  closed  Pequot  war,  218. 

Massachusetts,  and  family  of  Lincoln,  45-47; 
charter  of,  granted,  55  ;  people,  from  east 
ern  counties  of  England,  56;  charter,  trans 
fer  to  America  considered,  66-75,  145;  gov 
ernment  of,  in  England,  abscinded  from 
the  charter,  68;  founders,  honest  in  their 
use  of  the  first  charter,  70,  72,  90;  history 
of,  that  of  Dudley,  75-91 ;  and  Plymouth, 
173-181,  427;  early  prosperity  of,  249  ;  sev 
erance  of,  early,  in  spirit  from  the  mother 
country,  295 ;  the  strongest  colony,  1643, 
300,  427;  and  persons  outside  of  her  terri 
tory,  299,  300 ;  controversy  with  persons  in 
Rhode  Island,  301 ;  and  Gorton,  305 ;  a 
model  in  government,  308;  foundation  of 
her  government,  309 ;  and  English  civil  war, 
324;  and  slavery,  330;  progress  of,  355,  356; 
founders  not  in  search  of  gold,  356;  leader 
in  progress,  373,  427,  428;  in  conflict  with 
the  United  Colonies,  375;  and  Connecticut 
in  trouble,  376;  and  the  death  of  Charles  I., 
390  ;  and  Canada,  399  ;  and  Dudley  insepa 
rable,  425 ;  the  monument  of  Thomas  Dud 
ley,  426 ;  her  early  construction,  426 ;  and 
Plymouth  compared,  427. 

Masters  before  the  Court  for  the  improper 
treatment  of  servants,  118. 

Mather,  Cotton,  opinion  of  Dudley's  letter, 
176 ;  and  Joseph  Dudley,  457. 

Matthews,  Marmaduke,  false  account  of,  208  ; 
and  his  heresy,  395  ;  not  banished,  395. 

Mayflower,  the,  57. 

Medford,  85. 

Medicine,  quack,  prices  of  commodities  deter 
mined  by  the  Court,  118. 

Merchant,  law,  395. 

Miantonomoh,  at  the  home  of  Dudley,  259, 
273  ;  fear  of,  in  Massachusetts,  296 ;  Gorton 
and,  305  ;  and  Uncas,  310. 


Midsummer  Night's  Dream  performed  in 
London  on  Sunday,  267. 

Military  knowledge  of  Dudley,  96 ;  organiza 
tion,  233  ;  drill  of  boys,  328. 

Milton,  John,  18,  50. 

Ministers,  maintenance  of,  first  business  in  the 
colony,  91  ;  not  in  civil  authority,  120;  de 
termine  who  shall  be  freemen,  120:  and  the 
code,  203  ;  ambition  of,  and  Dudley,  271 ; 
and  the  government,  412  ;  and  political 
power,  427. 

Ministry,  educated,  415. 

Mistick,  changed  to  Maiden,  78. 

Money,  need  of,  272;  coining  of,  in  Massa 
chusetts,  413. 

Moral  standard  of  servants,  low  in  many  in 
stances,  118. 

Morals  in  Massachusetts  in  1639,  267. 

More,  Sir  Thomas,  6,  29. 

Morton,  Nathaniel,  good  opinion  of  Dudley, 
388,  432,  433. 

Morton,  Thomas,  92,  142,  324. 

Munster,  fanatics  of,  219 ;  and  Puritans,  311. 

Musselburgh,  victory  of,  and  Earl  of  Lincoln, 
37- 

NANTES,  Edict  of,  22. 

Narragansetts,  peace  with,  334. 

Navarre,  Henry  of,  3,  20,  22. 

Needles,  the,  passed  by  the  Arbella,  64. 

Negative  voice  in  legislation,  189,  317,335; 
and  the  magistrates,  327. 

Netherlands,  influence  on  Lincolnshire  and 
England,  48. 

New  England's  Jonas,  337. 

Newgate  in  Connecticut,  418. 

Newton,  Sir  Isaac,  18. 

Newtown,  approved,  78;  first  intended  to  be 
the  capital,  92  ;  chosen  for  the  capital,  1630, 
92,  95,  98;  fortified,  1631,96;  refuses  to  help 
on  the  fort  at  Boston,  113. 

Nicolls,  Augustine,  4,  25,  27,  31 ;  character 
and  occupation  of,  26,  27. 

Nonconformists  in  the  ascendency  in  Lincoln 
shire,  39,  45,  48. 

Normans  against  Saxons  in  Lincolnshire,  37. 

Northampton,  Dudley's  residence  at,  24. 

Northampton,  Earl  of,  i  ;  Dudley  the  page  of, 

I,    12. 

Norton,  Charles  Eliot,  descended  from  Dud 
ley,  8. 
Nova  Scotia,  civil  war  in,  286. 

OATH  of  freemen  and  suffrage,  164  ;  not  to  be 
tendered  to  an  unregenerate  man,  Williams, 
194  ;  of  allegiance  to  the  king,  289 ;  of  alle 
giance  omits  the  king,  289,  290. 

Office,  disability  to  hold,  very  general,  120, 
121 ;  rotation  in,  and  Dudley,  161. 

Oldman,  John,  killed,  217. 

Oligarchy,  government  not  an,  94,  95. 

Ordnance   in    Bcston,  moved    by   Winthrop, 

Oxford,   England,  influence   of,  in  America, 
Oxford  men  in  America,  256. 

PACEY,  MRS.  THOMAS,  469. 

Page,  duties  of  a,  15-17. 

Palatinate,  expedition  to  the,  34,  38. 

Palisade  about  Newtown  (Cambridge)  made 
by  Dudley,  96,  125  ;  at  Cambridge  and  the 
fort  in  Boston,  114,  155,  156;  of  Dudley  at 
Cambridge,  the  cause  of  representative  legis 
lature  in  Massachusetts,  127,  128,  155. 


486 


INDEX 


Parent  and  child,  359. 

Parliament,  petition_to,  401. 

Patent,  55. 

Pawtuxet  and  Gorton,  300. 

Peace  with  the  Narragansetts,  334 ;  in   1645, 

334- 

Penobscot,  351,  352. 

People,  the,  how  far  to  be  trusted,  93. 

Pepys,  Samuel,  18. 

Perjury  and  Roger  Williams,  136,  137. 

Pequot  war,  217. 

Pesecus,  warlike,  334. 

Pester,  Dorothy,  leave  to  marry,  415. 

Peter  the  Great  and  lawyers,  203. 

Peter  the  Hermit  and  Amiens,  20. 

Peters,  Mr.,  high  opinion  of  Dudley,  209. 

Philip  II.  of  Spain,  21. 

Philip,  King,  of  Mount  Hope,  the  successor 
of  Miantonomoh  in  his  purposes,  273. 

Phillips,  Wendell,  descended  from  Dudley,  8. 

Piers  Plowman,  261. 

Plymouth,  Council  of,  55. 

Plymouth  and  Massachusetts,  173-181,  427. 

Poetry  of  Dudley  much  quoted,  227,  430. 

Politicians  and  Massachusetts,  320. 

Politics  and  religion,  358. 

Polygamy  is  not  tolerated,  229. 

Powwow,  Indian,  357. 

Prayer  and  tasting,  325,  416. 

Prayer  Book,  81,  342. 

Presbyterianism,  342. 

Presbyterians  of  Hingham,  338. 

Preston,  Dr.,  influence  with  the  Earl  of  Lin 
coln  and  Dudley,  34,  35,  38. 

Prices  of  commodities  set  at  liberty,  153; 
wages  and  labor,  253. 

Priestcraft,  worst  element  in  politics,  358. 

Priesthoods  and  the  government,  412. 

Printing  press,  the,  in  America,  256  ;  at  Cam 
bridge  in  1639,  275. 

Prisons,  lack  of,  in  America,  200,  418. 

Privy  Council,  charges  before,  144 ;  favors 
Massachusetts,  144,  145. 

Prohibitory  law,  154. 

Prosperity  of  Massachusetts,  154,  155,  249. 

Providence,  overruling,  326. 

Puefroy,  Mrs.,  and  Thomas  Dudley,  n. 

Puefroys,  connected  with  Dudleys  by  mar 
riage,  ii. 

Pumham  and  Sacononoco  against  Gorton,  301. 

Punishment  in  Massachusetts  vindictive,  139, 
140. 

Puritan  emigration  to  America  of  1630,  54-66  ; 
strictness  vindicated,  249. 

Puritans  not  interested  in  ancestry,  9,  10 ;  in 
England,  39  ;  letter  of,  to  their  brethren  of 
the  church  on  departing,  60-63  !  in  distress, 
1630,  80;  honest  towards  the  Church  of  Eng 
land  in  America,  82;  adhere  to  the  English 
Church,  120  ;  had  little  confidence  in  persons 
without  religion,  122  ;  in  England  retained 
there  in  1640,  274;  not  fanatical,  274;  and 
liberty,  274  ;  in  Massachusetts,  428,  429. 

Pym,  John,  50;  attempted  emigration  to  Amer 
ica,  250. 

Pynchon,  William,  and  Springfield,  Mass., 
283  ;  Pynchon's  book,  398,  406 ;  letter  of, 
and  Indians,  378. 

Pynchon,  Mrs.  William,  death  of,  85. 

QUARREL  between  Winthrop  and  Dudley, 
97-105,  155,  156. 

RAIN  produced  by  fasting,  270. 
Raleigh,  Sir  Walter,  18. 


Randolph,  Edward,  454. 

Ratcliffe,  Philip,  punished,  139. 

Records    of    marriages,   births,    and    deaths, 

255- 
Religion  and  the  state,  119-122,  327,  338,342, 

344,  413  ;  in  politics,  358  ;  foundation  of  the 

state,  359. 
Religious  and  political  freedom,  231  ;  stability 

in  America,  343. 
Representative  government  in  Massachusetts. 

285. 
Representatives  chosen,  93  ;    House  of,  result 

of  palisade,  155. 
Request,  Humble,  and   the  English   Church, 

60-63. 

Revelations,  Antinomian,  221. 
Revolution,  the,  and  an  earlier  one,  183. 
Rhode   Island,   Dr.    John   Clarke  father  of, 

201  ;  refusal  by  Massachusetts  to  treat  with, 

276,  277. 

Richmond  Hill,  30. 
Roads  improved,  255. 
Rogers,  Rev.  Ezekiel,  421. 
Rogers,   Rev.   Nathaniel,  kind  worJs  of,  re 
specting   Dudley,   261  ;  and   Dudley,    plain 

words,  316;  encomium  on  Dudley,  412. 
Ross,  Robert  de,  30. 
Roxbury,  85  ;  residence  of  Dudley,  256-262  ; 

Latin  school,  259 ;  free  school,  329  ;  tomb  of 

Dudley  at,  420. 
Ruskin,  John,  and  the  cathedral  at  Amiens, 

Russell,  Lord  William,  29. 

SABBATH -BREAKING  and  Roger  Williams, 
136. 

Sacononoco,  301. 

Salem,  arrival  of  the  Puritans  at,  77  ;  did  not 
please  them,  77. 

Saltonstall,  Sir  Richard,  passenger  on  the 
Arbella,  58 ;  would  not  emigrate  without  the 
charter,  73 ;  and  a  few  others  survived, 
88 ;  fined  for  absence  from  Court,  92  ;  letter 
to  Wilson  and  Cotton,  241. 

Saltonstall,  Richard,  and  the  Council  for  Life, 
213  ;  and  Bellingham  against  the  assistants, 
282,  294;  book  of,  293,294;  and  Bellingham 
against  the  magistrates  in  the  sow  business, 

Satan  and  the  Scriptures,  366. 

Savage,  Mr.  James,  approves  of  Dudley's 
trades  in  corn,  102,  103  ;  strictures  on  Dud 
ley*  135;  possible  mistake  of,  206;  his  de 
fense  of  Winthrop  on  the  use  of  the  word 
Antinomian,  228 ;  note  of,  upon  Dudley 
and  Miantonomoh,  273  ;  and  bigotry,  276. 

Saxon  kings,  graves  of,  and  the  emigration  to 
America,  57. 

Saxon  in  the  Commonwealth  of  Massachu 
setts,  262  ;  at  the  front,  339. 

Saxons  against  Normans  in  Lincolnshire,  37. 

Say  and  Sele,  Lord,  daughter  of,  Countess  of 
Lincoln,  42,  46. 

Saybrook,  the  fort  at,  375  ;  settlement  of,  dis 
pute  at,  394. 

Schools,  common,  255,  256,  366,  367,  427. 

Scilly  Isles  and  Sir  Harry  Vane,  65. 

Scots,  Mary,  Queen  of,  20. 

Scriptures,  Holy,  in  Massachusetts,  412. 

Sea,  the,  overcome  in  the  lowlands  of  Lin> 
colnshire,  48. 

Seal  on  Gov.  Thomas  Dudley's  will,  5-7. 

Selden,  John,  18. 

Selectmen  of  Cambridge,  132. 

Selectmen  of  towns,  266,  293. 


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